


Something Borrowed

by SingingInTheRaiin



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Don't think too hard about anyone's ages, Gen, Hannibal is so whipped, Happy Ending, I'm just going to say it guys, Imaginary Friends, M/M, Manipulation, Mischa Lecter Lives, Orphans, Possessive Hannibal Lecter, Possessive Mischa Lecter, Slightly Non-Linear, Winston dies of old age, aftermath of war, and not just in the kitchen, but hopefully not confusing, i am sorry for that, impressive knife skills, it happens off screen and is only mentioned in the politest terms, party foul between siblings, the graphic violence is mostly just in chapter 25
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2020-07-17 23:50:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 27
Words: 60,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19965268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SingingInTheRaiin/pseuds/SingingInTheRaiin
Summary: Over twenty years ago, imaginary friend Will ran from Hannibal, intent on being a 'real' person. But he's missed Hannibal, and knows that it's time to come home.





	1. Chapter 1

He had waited over twenty years to return it. Though if anyone were to ask him why he had decided to finally do so now, he wasn't sure his answer would be enough for them. He’d simply woken up one morning a couple of days ago, seen a familiar face, and suddenly knew that he needed to return what he'd once taken. He had enough unused vacation days stacked up at work that he could take plenty of time off, and more than enough money in his savings account to buy himself a plane ticket.

As he drove into the city in a rented car, Will had to take the chance to look around. He hadn’t seen so much as a photograph of Baltimore since he’d last been here, back when he’d been nothing more than a foolish child. It was strange to be back, and he certainly didn’t think of it as returning home.

Despite his long absence, Will was able to drive to his destination without even having to think about it, the route ingrained in his mind far too well for him to ever forget it. It wasn’t until he actually pulled up to the familiar building that Will hesitated. Maybe it had been a mistake to come here. It had been so long, and if he was going to fix it, he should have done so years ago instead of running away like a coward.

But before he could put the car into reverse and drive like hell back to the airport, the front door of the building opened, and a beautiful woman stepped outside. She paused at the sight of Will, and tilted her head curiously. “Hello.” Her voice had a slight accent to it that Will couldn’t place. Even though she didn’t say anything else, her eyes were full of questions about what stranger was standing around awkwardly on the front lawn.

Will cleared his throat, and jammed his hands into his jacket pockets to avoid fidgeting too much. “Is this the home of Dr. Lecter?” Of course he knew that it had been at one point, but it was entirely possible that the doctor had moved away at some point in the past two decades. Maybe he hadn’t wanted to stick around in Baltimore any more than Will had.

The woman crossed her arms over her chest, and now she looked annoyed. Will avoided meeting her gaze, not wanting any insight about her feelings. “Great, another crazy stalker patient. Can’t you people just leave my brother alone?”

Will’s eyes widened, and he stared at the woman in disbelief. “Brother…?” His mind started whirring through all of the possibilities as he tried to figure out what was going on. “Mischa?” As he looked at her closer, he found that he could recognize the dark maroon eyes, the royal cut of her cheekbones, and most tellingly, a small scar just under her left eye. He reached up to take off his glasses, unwilling to hide from someone who had once been so important to him. “I’m-”

“Will,” she breathed out, looking as shocked as Will did. “You haven’t changed a bit. I thought you…” she trailed off, and then they both just stood there staring at each other, neither of them sure of what to say in this strange situation. “What are you doing here?” He could tell that Mischa was wary, feeling a combination of guilt towards Will and protectiveness for her older brother. 

Will shifted on his feet. “I have something of Hannibal’s. He- he should have it back. Don’t worry, I promise I won’t tell him anything about your role in any of it.”

Mischa gulped, and her voice came out so quietly that it was almost impossible to hear. “But then you’ll be-”

“I know,” Will interrupted. “I’ve had twenty years. That’s more than someone like me could’ve ever thought to ask for.” He bit his lip and then found himself blurting out the biggest question that had been on his mind since the moment he’d first left. “How is he?”

The look on Mischa’s face softened, and she took a few steps closer to Will. Her arms twitched up for a moment, like she wanted to offer Will a hug, but then they dropped back down to her sides, and he knew that she felt like she had no right. “I don’t know whether you want to hear that he’s been happy, or that he’s been miserable.”

One corner of Will’s mouth curved up in a half-smile. “I just want to hear the truth.” 

Mischa nodded once, and then took a deep breath in and slowly let it out before speaking. “At first, he was miserable. Aunt was quite worried, having no idea why he was so depressed. It’s not like we could tell her, though. Hannibal got it into his head that you’d just gotten lost, and that he needed to go out and find you, but I convinced him not to. It was the first time I’d ever been unsure of whether he would listen to me or not. He stayed put, and finished med school, did his residency, became a doctor. He stuck with the medical stuff for about ten years before switching to psychiatry. I haven’t seen him as much over the years as I should have, but I think he’s content with his life.” Will nodded, and started to step forward, ready to go inside, but Mischa pushed gently against his chest to stop him. “Wait, Will. I know that you wanted to go, and believe me, once you were long gone and I was able to pull my head out of my ass I realized that I supported that decision whole-heartedly, but that doesn’t change how much it messed him up when you left. When I took you away. If you’re not here to stay, then I don’t think that you should be here at all.”

There were a million things that Will probably should have said to that, but what ended up coming out was, “I’m here to stay.” Then he gave Mischa a long look. “I probably should have asked this first, but how have you been?”

Mischa smiled, and dropped her hand. “I’ve been good. You might have been mine first, but I stopped needing you years before Hannibal saw you.”

One corner of Will's mouth twitched up into the ghost of a smile. He'd once made his own assumptions about why she'd claimed to need him, but he wanted to hear it from her this time. “Then why-?”

And then he was thrown for a loop when Mischa pulled him into a tight hug. “Because you were my friend, you idiot.” Then she stepped back, a radiant grin on her face. “Now get in there before I insist on having you all to myself.” Her smile faded slightly at her own words, even though they had a much lighter tone than they would have twenty years ago. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

Will wasn't sure what to say in the face of a blatant apology, so he decided that it was something that could wait to be addressed. “I promise that you and I will catch up once I’ve spoken with Hannibal.” Then he kissed the top of Mischa’s head before walking past her, towards the very familiar house. It was the place where he’d truly been seen by Hannibal. The place where everything had changed for Will. He paused right in front of the door, though, so that he could glance back at Mischa, who was already walking towards the car that was presumably hers. And Will realized that for the same reasons he was coming back to see Hannibal, he could allow himself to forgive Mischa. Maybe time really did heal all wounds.

As he pushed the front door open, an achingly familiar voice called out from down the hallway. “Mischa, darling, did you forget your keys again?” It was deeper and rougher from aging, but still unmistakably Hannibal’s.

Will almost wished that it was possible for his palms to sweat, if only so that he had some kind of outlet for the nerves that were racing through him at the thought of seeing Hannibal again. He paused just outside the kitchen, where Hannibal was sure to be, when new thoughts began filling his head. What if Hannibal didn’t want to see Will again? It had been twenty long years, and Will had apparently put Hannibal through a lot of misery. What if showing up now was only going to bring back memories that Hannibal wanted nothing to do with anymore? And it's not like Will and Hannibal had actually spent much time together, in the grand scheme of things. They'd been apart for much, much longer than they'd ever been together.

Before he could make a decision about whether he was going to turn back or not, there was a man springing out at him, and suddenly Will was pinned up against the wall with a knife at his throat. He blinked a few times in surprise, and then slowly looked at Hannibal’s face, letting himself take it all in if this was going to be the last sight he’d ever see.

It took a moment, but then recognition flashed through Hannibal’s eyes. That’s when he pressed the knife even harder, drawing a thin line of blood across Will’s neck. Will didn’t even flinch at the slight sting that accompanied it. “Hannibal,” he whispered. “I’m home.”

Hannibal’s eyes narrowed, and he didn’t let up his grip on Will for even a moment. “What are you doing here?”

Despite the obvious threat in Hannibal’s eyes, Will reached into his pocket and pulled out a ratty old piece of notebook paper that had become yellowed and faded from old age and being constantly handled. “I wanted to give this back to you.”

That’s when Hannibal finally released Will, though he didn’t make any move to step away, which left Will still trapped in place. He didn’t mind, though. Being so close to Hannibal again was far too pleasant for any of the other details to matter. 

Hannibal slowly took the paper out of Will’s hand, and carefully unfolded it. The spots around the creases had whitened so much that they were nearly illegible, but Will knew that Hannibal knew exactly what the paper was supposed to say. Or at the very least, what it was supposed to mean. Hannibal gulped once, and then looked back at Will. His face was blank, but Will had always been able to read Hannibal far better than anyone else. “Why?”

Will shrugged. “I’ve missed you, Hannibal.”

Hannibal’s eyes narrowed, and he crushed the paper into a wrinkled ball before letting it fall onto the floor. “You left me,” he said in a perfectly calm voice. “If you think that you can just waltz back into my life as though nothing happened,” He didn’t finish the sentence, but the threat there was easy to hear.

“I just wanted to be real,” Will explained, forcing himself to keep his voice level and without any hint of whine to it. And maybe there was more to the story, especially all the parts involving Mischa, but once he'd left even her, he had wanted to be real. At least once he'd gotten used to the idea. “You wanted me to be all yours-”

The knife was suddenly stabbed into Will’s arm, but he ignored the pain. The blade had really only scrapped Will’s arm, and mostly just served to pin his shirt to the wall. “You were mine,” Hannibal hissed. Then he stepped back, leaving the knife in place. “But that was a long time ago. I have no use for such disloyalty.”

Will rolled his eyes. “See? This is exactly why I never came back. You seem to find it impossible to ever admit that maybe you’re not always right about everything, and that maybe other people should be allowed to have agency outside of what you want!”

“Get out of my house, Will.”

Will frowned. “Or what? You’ll throw a dinner party with me as the main course?”

For a moment it seemed as though Hannibal was completely frozen, and then he was suddenly right in Will’s face. “What are you talking about?”

Will scoffed, though he was sure that there was some guilt showing through on his face that he couldn’t contain. “I knew you for a very long time, Hannibal. Even before you saw me, I saw you, through your sister’s eyes. Then once you saw me, once you took that stupid paper and everything it entailed, I saw you too. I fought to make you go against your nature, but I knew that when I left, I was risking you embracing it. Every life you took is on my hands, but I just wanted to be selfish for once in my existence.”

Even with all of his experience, Will couldn’t tell what Hannibal was thinking in that moment. “You knew, and you came back anyways?” he murmured.

Will shrugged with the shoulder that wasn’t restricted. “Like I said, I’ve missed you.” He closed his eyes and turned his head to the side, pressing his cheek against the wall. “Kill me if you must, Hannibal. Consume me so that I can never be anyone else’s. Or tell me honestly that you want nothing to do with me. That’s the only way you’re going to be able to get rid of me. I can’t stand the thought of walking away from you again, not for all the ‘realness’ in the world.”

There was a brief pause, and Will refused to open his eyes. He might be ready to accept his fate, but that didn’t mean he wanted to watch it coming. He’d gotten his greedy fill of Hannibal already, and could die happy now. 

So it came as a bit of a shock when there was suddenly a pair of scorching hot lips pressed up against Will’s, rough and unafraid to bite. Will kept his eyes closed as he eagerly returned the kiss, unaware that this was something he’d ever wanted, but knowing how much he wanted it in that moment.

It felt like centuries passed before Hannibal finally pulled away, suffering from the human need to breath. He reached up and very gently removed the knife, then tossed it down onto the floor without bothering to look. Will’s eyes fluttered open, and he watched as Hannibal leaned forward to kiss the small injury on Will’s arm. “You can never leave me again,” he threatened in a quiet voice.

“I won’t,” Will swore earnestly. 

Hannibal nodded, and then he picked the paper up off the floor, carefully straightening it out as much as he could without risking tearing it. “I’ll have to make sure that nothing ever happens to this.”

Will nodded as well, feeling somewhat dazed. He wasn’t entirely sure what he’d been expecting when he showed up, but he knew without a doubt that this was the best possible outcome. He also knew that as Hannibal took ownership of that paper, written in nothing more than a child’s scribbles, that he would never let go of it again. There were no real discernible words anywhere on the paper, but it was still a binding contract, originally created by Mischa Lecter. And now it was Hannibal’s. And now Will was Hannibal’s again.

,,,

Years Ago

,,,

_Will wished Mischa a happy birthday, and she grinned at him. “Guess what? For my birthday we’re going to go visit my big brother! I don't know if you remember him or not because we haven’t seen him in forever. We’re going all the way to America to visit him, can you believe it?”_

_“Sounds like fun.” As he watched Mischa skip off to begin packing her suitcase, Will couldn’t help feeling somewhat troubled. His charge was turning fourteen years old in just a few hours, but Will was still here. He’d never heard of anyone of his kind sticking around for so long, and Mischa seemed happy and healthy and had plenty of friends her own age, so Will had no idea what was keeping him around. Not that he hated being here; he loved Mischa and even though she was an orphan, he felt like something of a parent to her after their many years together._

_The trip to America seemed to go by in a blur, and soon enough, Mischa and her aunt and uncle had arrived. It was a nice looking house, and Will mentally congratulated Mischa’s older brother on his ability to make such a nice living for himself. Though it made sense, since he had always seemed like a very intelligent young man from what Will could remember of him._

_The door opened to reveal a handsome young man, and his resemblance to Mischa was quite clear now that they were both older. The visitors were ushered inside and lead to a sitting room with a fancy fireplace in it. The man motioned for the adults to sit down while he led Mischa down a hall and into a shiny kitchen. Will followed along as well, mostly because he always felt awkward when he was left alone in a room with Mischa’s guardians._

_“Hannibal, you look so old!”_

_Hannibal laughed, and pulled Mischa into a tight hug. “As do you, my darling. It has been far too long since I’ve last seen you.”_

_Mischa grinned, and glanced over at Will for a moment before she reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of scrap paper. Will recognized it immediately, since it was what bound him to Mischa until she no longer had need of him. “Hannibal, do you believe in imaginary friends?” Before the man could answer, she shoved the paper into his hands. “This is yours now!”_

_Hannibal blinked a few times, and then suddenly stiffened as he looked at Will, and it felt like his eyes were piercing right through him. Will looked at Mischa, who had a very self-satisfied air about her. “Mischa-”_

_“So that you won’t be lonely when I go back home,” she told Hannibal. And then she turned to look at Will. “And so that you don’t have to go away to some other family. Ours still needs you.” Then she left the room to return to her guardians, leaving Will and Hannibal to size each other up._

_Hannibal narrowed his eyes dangerously. “Who are you?”_

_Will nodded towards the paper still in Hannibal’s hand. “I’m Will. Well, I guess I’m yours now.” At the gleam in Hannibal’s eyes, Will felt a shiver down his spine. “Nice to meet you officially.”_

_Hannibal’s eyes flicked up and down quickly, taking everything about Will in, and then he relaxed, just a little bit. “Oh, the pleasure is all mine,” he practically purred. Will gulped, and wondered just what the hell Mischa had gotten him into._


	2. Many Years Ago

“Will? I have your new assignment here.” 

“What? Oh- yeah, sure.”

Will’s boss narrowed his eyes as he took in the sight of Will. “Are you… crying?” 

The incredulous tone in his voice was understandable, given the very nature of what they were. But Will had just returned from one final goodbye with one of his previous assignments, and it had been heart wrenching. None of the others understood why Will bothered with deathbed visits, since they were almost always decades after Will had left that person behind, but to Will, each child he was assigned became like his own, and he loved them all. He could never explain that, though, because his kind weren’t meant to have such strong feelings.

Will reached up to rub at his eyes with his sleeve. “Allergies,” he mumbled. “What’s the assignment?”

Will’s boss looked dubious- which made sense since their kind didn’t get allergies- but he was sufficiently distracted enough to hold out a file folder. “Well, you’ve always been good with the tougher cases,” he started slowly.

Will closed his eyes as he took in a deep breath. His latest assignment had been a very tough one, at least in the beginning, and he’d been hoping to take it easy for a while. But if a child needed him, then he wasn’t one to turn them away. “What are the details?”

His boss gave him a funny look, then cleared his throat and glanced down at the folder. “Hidden girl, four years old, orphaned, parents were killed in the war.”

“Which war?”

His boss shrugged. “I don’t know. All those petty human squabbles look the same to me. Anyways, you’re reporting out tomorrow morning.” He roughly thrust the folder into Will’s hands, and then turned around and hurried off. That man’s job never ended.

Will flipped open the folder to give it a glance for himself. He wasn’t sure why this was being called a ‘tough’ case. While it looked like his new assignment had a difficult life, the girl herself seemed to be a good person so far. But it wasn’t his job to question his boss, and he also knew that more details would become apparent once he actually met the girl. For now, he would go to his river where he could get some peace and quiet. It’s not like he needed any sleep before leaving, and he would miss his river.

,,,

When Will arrived at his destination, he was immediately filled with concern. He was standing in front of what appeared to be the ruined skeletal remains of a burnt down house. He followed his instincts until he found himself standing in front of a black, ashen bed. He slowly crouched down and peered underneath. Ah, there was the child.

He gave her a small smile, but didn’t reach out for her, not wanting to startle her. “Matis?” The girl slowly blinked and looked up at Will. Her movements were sluggish, and she looked like nothing but skin and bones. Will wasn’t sure how long she’d been hiding here, but he knew that he needed to get her somewhere safer as soon as possible. “My name is Will, I’m your friend. I’m here to help you, I promise. Is it okay if I pull you out?” The girl slowly nodded, and Will gave her an encouraging smile as he gently pulled her out. “You’re doing a great job. Now let’s get you out of here, okay? You need food and proper shelter and I’m going to help you, but I need you to be able to walk for a little bit. Do you think you can do that? I’ll even hold your hand, if you want.”

The girl still didn’t say anything, but considering the condition that she was in, Will didn’t find that too surprising. She struggled to even walk, shuffling forward with her feet barely even lifting off the ground, but there was clearly a fierce determination in her to live, because she never once stopped. And when she did stumble, Will would squeeze her hand just a bit tighter, and hold her upright.

The two of them walked all night before finally arriving at a building that didn’t look as though it had been completely destroyed. Will knelt down in front of Matis, gently touching her shoulders. “The people inside are going to help you, once you knock on the door. And I promise that I’ll be with you every step of the way, until the moment you get sick of me. But before you knock, you should know that the others in there won’t be able to see me. No one else in the world besides you can.”

“Why?” she croaked out. It was the first thing he’d heard Matis say, and her voice sounded weak and strained from everything that she’d been through.

Will blinked in surprise. None of his other children had ever stopped to ask why nobody else could see him, they just accepted it and then once they grew up more, he left. That was how it was supposed to work. “Because I’m your imaginary friend,” he told her, even as he wondered if a four-year-old could understand what that meant.

Matis stared at him blankly for a long couple of seconds. “You are not real?” The rasp in her voice was almost painful to listen to.

Will quickly shook his head. “Of course I’m real. I’m real to you, anyways, and that’s what matters.” He paused for a moment and then reached into his pocket to pull out the small notebook that he always carried around. He then patted himself down before coming up with a single crayon. He held the paper and crayon out to Matis. “Usually I’d wait until we’ve gotten to know each other better, so that you can decide whether or not you want to keep me, but I can make an exception. Look, if you write out a contract on this paper, it means that I can’t leave you. It’s up to you whether that’s something you want or not.”

Despite the fatigue weighing her down, Matis snatched the paper and crayon out of Will’s hands with impressive speed. She dropped to her knees and put the paper down on the dusty ground, and then began scribbling away with a look of immense concentration on her face. After a few minutes, she handed Will the crayon back, but not the paper. “You can’t leave,” she told him, tapping the notebook paper. Then she folded the paper up and slipped it into the pocket of her worn clothes. She gave Will a solemn nod before slowly getting to her feet and knocking on the door.

It opened a moment later, revealing a tired looking woman. Her eyes widened at the sight of Matis, and then softened into something full of sadness. “Oh my.” She crouched down to look at Matis more closely. “What’s your name, young man?” 

“Matis.” Will tilted his head curiously as the stilted conversation continued. He could have sworn that the file listed Matis as being a girl? Ah, but it was always so difficult to tell with humans, and that was hardly the biggest priority at the moment. Right now, he just wanted to make sure that Matis was somewhere safe and comfortable where she could begin to heal, at least physically, from everything that she’d been through.

,,,

Mrs. Kostin patiently took care of Matis for several weeks before deciding that the girl was strong enough to be taken into the city to one of the many orphanages that had been set up there. Will had paid close attention to everything, and had figured out that the war had left behind a large number of orphans, as well as children who had been separated from their families in the confusion of it all. Matis’ file also mentioned that she had a brother, but Will had no idea what his fate had been, since Matis had not mentioned him at all.

Because Matis refused to talk about her parents, the people at the orphanage decided to err on the side of caution. Everyday, they published photos of the children in their care, so that if they had family out there, the family would know which orphanage to seek their child from. 

The orphanage was overcrowded, and most of the children in it were clearly suffering from various traumas. The war had not been easy on any of them. There was enough food, but not enough space by far, with children sharing beds or sleeping on the floor, no spare clothing for anyone, and not nearly enough caretakers to pay attention to all of the children. Matis told Will that she was lucky to have him, though Will had noticed plenty of other imaginary friends hanging around in the orphanage, which meant that hopefully the other children would be shown affection and care as well.

Because of the conditions of the orphanage, Will was relieved that they only stayed there for a week. One day, an older man and woman had rushed in through the front doors, and immediately spotted Matis and ran to her. The man dropped to his knees and pulled Matis into a hug, though he backed off when the girl didn’t return the gesture. “I’m so glad to see that you are okay, my dear boy. We had feared you had been lost to us forever. Do you know who I am?”

Matis glanced at Will, and then looked back at the other man and shyly shook her head. “No.”

He offered her a sad smile. “I am your Uncle Robert. And this is my wife, your Aunt Murasaki. We would be honored to take care of you, mylimasis. Your brother has already found his way to us, and I know that he misses you dearly.”

Matis’ eyes widened at the mention of her brother, and then a hesitant smile made its way onto her face. “Please take me there.”

,,,

Robert and Murasaki took Matis to their home, which was in France. The trip felt long, but Will was beyond glad to see Matis get doted on by her aunt and uncle, as they bought her new clothes and made sure to point out all of the interesting sights along the way. When they finally reached the home, even Will was taken aback by the grandeur of it, and he’d seen his share of nice houses.

They walked inside to a grand entrance hall, and after Robert hung his coat up in a small closet by the door, he called out into the cavernous building. “We are home! And Matis is with us!”

It didn’t take long for someone to rush towards them from some other room, and practically tackle Matis to the ground. Matis fully grinned for the first time Will had ever seen as she wrapped her arms around her ‘attacker’. “Hannibal! I’m home!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be honest, I'm not really sure where I'm trying to go with this, but I guess my brain thought it was a good time for background. I don't know if I should keep going forward from this point until it loops back around to the first chapter again, or just end here, or continue forward from the current day or what. Honestly, whatever parts of this story you guys want to see is what I want to write. (and if you hate this continuation I'm content to end things where they are xD)


	3. Chapter 3

Will was outside, watching the local stray dogs race each other around the neighborhood, and part of him felt jealous of them and their freedom. Not that he wanted to leave Matis behind after loyally staying by her side for the past three years, but just the idea of being able to do whatever he wanted without being told where to go or what he could even touch seemed like some kind of dream come true.

He was interrupted from his musing by Matis making her way over to him, and plopping down on the grass next to him. “Will?”

“Hm?”

She took a deep breath in, and then slowly let it out. “There’s something wrong with me.” Will immediately turned to look at her, eyes assessing for any kind of injury. Matis pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “Not like that. I think there’s something wrong with me on the inside. You know how you always call me a girl? And not like in a mean way? But everyone else calls me a boy?” 

Will slowly nodded. “Yes. Would you like me to stop?” 

Matis quickly shook her head. “No! I want everyone else to stop. I don’t understand what’s wrong with me.”

Will reached out one arm to gently wrap around Matis’ shoulder and pull her closer to him in a sideways hug. “There’s nothing wrong with you, I promise.”

“Do you think Hannibal will hate me if I tell him about this?”

Will shook his head. “No, of course not. He loves you no matter what, Matis, and just wants you to be happy. But you don’t have to tell him, or anybody else, until you’re ready, okay?”

She took a few deep breaths before abruptly getting to her feet. “I think I’m ready now, if you come with me.” 

Will took her hand and allowed himself to be led back into the house. Matis went around to gather Robert, Murasaki, and Hannibal in one room, and then stood in front of them, shaking from nerves. Hannibal offered Matis a comforting smile. “Whatever it is that you wish to talk about, we are here to listen.”

Matis nodded, and then took another few seconds before she was able to start talking. “I think… I think I’magirl,” the last few words came out in a speedy jumble.

Murasaki frowned and opened her mouth, but Hannibal shot her a glare, and then got up so that he could move to Matis. “Then it must be so.”

Matis looked surprised that Hannibal was so accepting. And he really did sound like he meant it, which only came across whenever he was talking to Matis. “And I don’t want to be called Matis anymore. It’s a boy’s name.”

“Do you have a different name in mind?” Matis glanced at Will, then shyly shook her head. “We can help you think of the right one, then.”

She gave Hannibal a hopeful look. “You really believe me?”

He nodded. “Who could possibly know you better than you?” 

Matis’ eyes looked watery, and then she lunged forward to pull Hannibal into a tight hug. “You’re the best big brother in the world.”

Hannibal chuckled as he returned the hug. “I know. And you are the best little- sister.” Will watched the aunt and uncle for their reactions. Murasaki looked upset, but Robert was looking at his niece and nephew with love in his eyes, and Will was satisfied that Matis would be safe here.

,,,

“Darling, I’ve already explained this to you. I’ve been accepted into a very good school, that just happens to be in America. Going there is how I will be successful in life.”

“But I don’t want you to go,” Mischa insisted, as though Hannibal had simply misunderstood her the first few times she’d said it. “You can’t just leave me again!”

They both suddenly froze in place, and Will found himself paying closer attention to the scene. He couldn’t think of a different time that Mischa had been left behind. Perhaps it had been before Will had been sent to the girl? He had found her all alone, after all. 

But whatever the case was, Mischa looked instantly regretful of her words. “I’m sorry, Hannibal, I didn’t mean it.”

He closed his eyes for a moment, and then looked down at his sister sadly. “We’ve never actually talked about it, though. That day, when I went out to scavenge-” Will left the entrance hall, feeling as though that conversation would be too personal for him to listen in on. 

Instead, he decided to go upstairs and explore Hannibal’s art studio. None of his work had been packed up yet, since there was still another two weeks until he was actually leaving. For now, Will was content to peruse the beautiful sketches. It was hard to believe that they’d been created by a boy of Hannibal’s age. 

After a little while, Will could sense Mischa’s distress, and he found her in her bedroom. He sat down next to her on the floor, and pulled her into a hug. He waited patiently, just hoping to provide her with some comfort. “You’ll never leave me, right Will?”

“Not until the moment you want me gone. It’s in our contract, remember?”

Mischa nodded, and then got up so that she could scrounge around her room until she found the old scrap paper with crayon scribbles on it. “I want you to stay with me forever.” 

Based on Mischa’s age, Will knew that he would probably not be needed for much longer, no matter what the girl said now. But no matter how much time he had left with her, he was determined to protect her and keep her happy.

,,,

As Mischa grew older, she began to socialize more with her peers, and she made many friends, though none of them were very close. She assured Will that he was her best friend, even after he told her that he wouldn’t be upset if she made others. But despite her lack of other important people in her life, she seemed content between school, calls with her brother, and the doting of her guardians. So long as she was happy, Will had no reason to be concerned.

,,,

“Guess what? For my birthday we’re going to go visit my big brother!”


	4. Chapter 4

Will was pretty sure that none of his people had ever been in a situation like this before. It was unusual enough for him to still be around by the time his client was a teenager, but then for her to just hand her contract off to somebody else? It was unheard of. And yet, Hannibal could clearly see Will now, while Robert and Murasaki and everyone else in the world were still blind to him. Will thought it would be best to keep sticking with Mischa, since that was what he’d been doing for years now, but she kept not so subtly hinting that he should spend more time with Hannibal. 

While in the middle of a contract, Will did have some level of freedom to move about on his own. But when Mischa and her guardians went to leave Hannibal’s place to head back to the airport at the end of the week, Will found that he couldn’t go further than the edge of the lawn when Hannibal was inside the house. He’d never taken a tape measure to rule it, but he suspected that he had even less movement now than he had with Mischa. 

And with Mischa gone, Will was stuck with someone he barely knew beyond a few memories of Hannibal as a boy, and he felt very awkward. Maybe the best thing to do would just be to talk to Hannibal about all of this, and explain why the situation was too unorthodox to continue. 

He didn’t even need to concentrate to find Hannibal, thanks to the delicious aroma coming from the kitchen. Hannibal certainly did love to cook. Will couldn’t help wistfully thinking of how good Hannibal’s cooking must be if it tasted half as nice as it always looked. Then Will shook aside that thought. Food wasn’t what was important right now.

He made his way into the kitchen, then hesitated in the doorway. He’d only been in this room once before, which was when Mischa had handed him to her big brother. After that, Hannibal had quietly told him that he should stay out of the kitchen. And while Will was by no means bound to obey Hannibal, he thought it best not to provoke the man when they could be stuck together for the foreseeable future.

Even though Hannibal’s back was turned to Will, he still somehow knew that Will was there. “You can come in, if you’d like. I’m just doing some prep work.” 

Will slowly walked into the room, instinctively knowing that this place was Hannibal’s sanctuary. “I was hoping that we could talk, now that there is no one else around who might think you’ve gone mad.” 

Hannibal finally turned to face Will, and there was an amused glint in his eyes even as his face only showed polite curiosity. “Even I’m still not fully convinced that I haven’t ‘gone mad’. What did you want to talk about, though?”

Will jammed his hands in his pockets. He’d never felt so awkward with any of his previous clients. Though maybe that was because they were usually under the age of eleven, and not attending university. “I know that you probably don’t fully understand this, but my job is to watch over and protect children who need me. If Mischa is no longer in need of me, then it is my duty to return home and receive my next assignment. But I can’t do that while you hold my contract. So if you could just hand it over, I’ll be on my way, and I’ll be out of your hair.”

Hannibal tilted his head to the side as he slowly looked Will over, as though he were assessing him for something. “Perhaps Mischa is right,” he suggested in a soft, slow voice. “Maybe I am too alone in this place.”

“Then make some friends.” Will couldn’t keep the exasperation out of his voice. He knew that some people had trouble connecting with others, but Hannibal had already proven himself to be a charming, intelligent, confident man, so Will couldn’t think of any reasons that he couldn’t just go out and make his own friends. “I don’t exist for you.”

The look on Hannibal’s face suddenly had Will on edge, and he was struck with the sudden urge to just turn around and run away as fast as he could. But that was ridiculous, because he couldn’t get very far from Hannibal even if he wanted to, and it’s not like he could be hurt anyways. So he forced himself to keep standing still, even as Hannibal slowly prowled closer to him. “Oh, but I have clear proof that says otherwise. You were a gift, Will. And I would never be so rude as to throw away a gift.”

Will gulped despite himself, and watched Hannibal with wide eyes until they were suddenly standing just inches apart. Even though Will was obviously the older of the two, both in terms of looks and actual age, Hannibal seemed to know with absolute certainty that he was the one in control, and Will couldn’t figure out a way to dispute that.

,,,

Will had been given strict instructions to stay upstairs while Hannibal threw his first ever dinner party. He insisted that he needed to make a good impression on his new group of acquaintances, and that Will would only be a distraction. Since the only advantage Will had over his current situation was the fact that Hannibal seemed to believe his word was law, Will decided to follow the request, for now.

It served as a good opportunity to snoop. It’s not like imaginary friends had much else to do whenever they weren’t actually with their clients. So Will waited until Hannibal’s guests arrived, insuring that the host would be quite busy, and then he slipped into Hannibal’s bedroom. It was the first time he’d been in there, and it was somehow nothing like he’d imagined it would be. Well, besides the pretentious artwork on the wall. That had definitely been expected.

Will spotted a leather bound journal on Hannibal’s bedside table, and grinned to himself as he snatched it up. He carefully unwrapped the thin leather strap from around it, and then opened the journal to the first page. It was a sketch of a very gorgeous looking house that Will had never seen before.

Then he narrowed his eyes as he tried to think why it looked so familiar. It hit him abruptly- this was a drawing of what Mischa and Hannibal’s first home had looked like, the one that had been nothing but ruins by the time Will found Mischa there. But the basic shape of the house was the same, and Will couldn’t think of any other houses that Hannibal would feel the need to draw.

He sank down on the edge of Hannibal’s bed as he slowly flipped through the pages of the journal, mesmerized by the beautiful art. It seemed unfair that Hannibal was an artist on top of everything else. Didn’t the man have any flaws besides his arrogance? 

Will was barely aware of the lighting getting dimmer, since his eyes worked as well in the dark as they did any other time. He continued to study each drawing, trying to learn about Hannibal through what the man thought worth recording. As he neared the end of the journal, Will was startled to see a drawing of himself. Or at least, he assumed it was supposed to be him. 

The face looked about the right shape, and that curly hair was there, but something about the drawing seemed off. It seemed far too idealized. Will existed to befriend children who were assigned to him, so there would be no reason to make him particularly attractive. He only needed to not be completely ugly, to avoid scaring the clients away. Which meant that the way Hannibal had drawn him was just bizarre. Especially since there were a couple of other sketches of the not-quite-Will in the following pages. 

When the light in the room was suddenly turned on, Will jolted up to his feet, eyes wide. He didn’t feel guilty about looking through Hannibal’s things, but he did feel slightly embarrassed about being caught doing so. “Shouldn’t you be entertaining your guests?”

A smile quirked up on Hannibal’s mouth. “They’ve all gone home. You must have been quite engaged to not notice the time.” His eyes blatantly dropped to the journal still in Will’s hand, and then slowly traveled back up to Will’s face.

Will was grateful that he wasn’t capable of blushing, because he was sure a shamed flush would have been the natural reaction. He didn’t like the insinuation that he might be intrigued by Hannibal. “I don’t find you that interesting,” he muttered, dropping the open journal down onto the bed. 

Hannibal’s smile only grew even more, the smug bastard. “You will,” he answered back softly, with the voice of a man who had complete confidence in his words.

Will didn’t think that he could be blamed for following through with his instincts this time and running away. He couldn’t go far, but even the room Hannibal had given him was better than standing in Hannibal’s room. He slammed the door shut behind him and locked it, though he was sure that Hannibal had his own key. Then he leaned back against the door, and squeezed his eyes shut. What the hell had Mischa gotten him in to?


	5. Chapter 5

Will found that the more time he spent with Hannibal, the bolder he grew. He knew that Hannibal despised rudeness, and yet there was nothing he could do to harm Will, and Will was actively hoping to be sent away so that he could receive his next assignment, which meant that Will may or may not have gone out of his way to be rude whenever possible. He was willing to deny it if anyone ever asked (not that there was anyone besides Hannibal who could).

Being rude was especially entertaining when there were other people around, because there was nothing Hannibal could do to scold Will without sounding like some kind of maniac to whoever he was with. Though he did still follow Hannibal’s ‘orders’, at least for the most part, so that he could maintain the advantage that came with not actually having to do as he was told.

Though perhaps Will had been hasty in his assessment that he was safe from harm. He’d never been physically injured with any of his other clients, but there was a first time for everything, and as Will found himself tripping down the stairs, he wondered if he’d just found a first time for himself. 

When he finally landed at the bottom of the stairs, Will just sat there for a moment, feeling dazed. It felt like less than a second later before there was a strong arm wrapped around him and Will was being gently pulled back up to his feet. He blinked a few times, and then his eyes flicked to the upper landing. “You wouldn’t happen to have been eating bananas up there or something, would you have? I swear like I felt like I must have slipped on something.”

“I can assure you that I would not leave banana peels on the floor,” Hannibal told Will, but there was a strange tone in his voice that Will didn’t quite understand. “Are you alright?” 

Will blinked a few times, and then nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just imaginary, right? Means I can’t get hurt.” Though the soreness in his legs and one of his arms seemed to put some doubt into that statement. He shook his head and pulled away from Hannibal’s gentle grip. “I’m fine,” he repeated. “I just need- I just need some air.” He brushed past Hannibal and hurried through the nearest door to stand outside on the lawn. It was soft beneath his feet, serving as a reminder that he was not even wearing any shoes.

,,,

Hannibal seemed to be living under the assumption that Will needed to sleep as much as any human, and Will was content to let him continue to believe that. He retreated to his room around the same time every night, and would then spend his time reading, or, as was the case more and more often lately, writing. Will found himself greatly enjoying writing about all the many adventures he’d been on with so many different children over the years. 

But the only problem with writing was that sometimes it would trigger memories that weren’t necessarily the fun kind. Like the child who had died while still under his care. That had been a rough assignment. Will usually stayed in his room all night, but suddenly couldn’t stand to be in there a moment longer.

He made his way downstairs to the kitchen, hoping for a cold glass of water to help him calm down, when he realized that he could hear something. He froze, and strained his ears to try and hear what was going on. It sounded like someone… screaming? 

Will followed the sound through the back of Hannibal’s pantry, where he saw a sliver of light where there should have been nothing. He cautiously pulled the wall, and it swung open like a door. The screaming got louder, but then died down after a couple of seconds. With wide eyes, Will made his way down a set of stairs, and found himself in a concrete basement that he’d definitely never seen before.

Though as he warily walked further into the abyss, he assessed the shape of the room and where the walls were, and decided that it must be an extension of the normal basement, but divided up and given a secret entrance. What could Hannibal possibly need a secret entrance for, though?

Will continued forward, and wondered why he felt so nervous. It’s not as though he could even get hurt here… right?

There was a curtain made of long plastic flaps, and Will found himself holding his breath as he lifted one of the end flaps to peer into the space beyond it. And there was Hannibal, dressed in a weird white suit, and he was facing a metal table. Will pushed his head further in to get a better look, and had to gulp down a shocked gasp when he saw a twitching body lying on the table, blood everywhere. 

Will’s immediate reaction was to turn around and run away, but he knew that that would be far too noisy on the concrete floor, and instead, he very carefully let the flap fall back into place, and then turned and inched his way back over to the stairs. Each step felt like it was as loud as thunder, and he kept expecting a pair of strong hands to suddenly wrap around his throat and yank him off the ground.

But nothing happened, and he made it back up to the pantry in one piece. He very carefully closed the door so that it was only open that same tiny sliver as before, and then got that drink of water. He gulped it down before leaving his glass in the sink, and then heading back up to the room. If Hannibal had heard him moving around, he wanted to be able to point to the glass in the sink and prove that he’d only gotten up for water. 

He closed and locked his bedroom door, and then sank down onto the bed, feeling unbearably exhausted. He almost wished that he was capable of going to sleep, if only to escape for a couple of hours from the monster he was tied to. He flopped back, letting his hair spread out around him on the blanket, and stared up at the ceiling. What the hell was he supposed to do now?


	6. Chapter 6

Hannibal observed Will as he walked around the room, trailing his fingers along the spines of the books on the shelf that was at eye level with him. In the past few weeks, Will had hardly spoken a word, and Hannibal wasn’t sure why. “Mischa is going to be calling today,” he reminded Will, though he had the feeling that Will eagerly kept track of when Hannibal’s sister would call. Hannibal couldn’t imagine what it would be like for only two people in the world to be aware of your existence.

Will glanced over at Hannibal for just a moment before he made a grunt of affirmation, and then turned back to the books. Hannibal didn’t bother trying to hide his small frown. From the beginning, Will had been… distant, which is why Hannibal found it so enjoyable to fluster him. But now, he was barely acknowledging Hannibal at all, which was just unacceptable. 

Hannibal tried to run through a list of their latest interactions that had occurred before this sudden stilt in conversation, but he couldn’t think of anything that stood out, at least not enough to have caused this. Well, that left only one way to get to the heart of the problem. Hannibal stood up and slowly walked over to Will, who was apparently so engaged in looking at book titles that he didn’t even notice Hannibal approaching.

When he was standing right behind the other man, he spoke. “Will, have I done something to offend you?” 

He found a small amount of satisfaction in the way that Will jolted from surprised before whirling around to face Hannibal. “Well for starters, you do seem to have this annoying habit of getting right up in my personal space.” Hannibal gave Will a Look™ but didn’t say anything else, waiting patiently for Will to say something more serious. Will sighed, and then leaned back against the bookcase, clearly indicating that he wanted to put as much distance between himself and Hannibal as possible. “Look, it’s not that you’ve done anything in particular, but I’ve already explained to you why this entire situation is just wrong. There are children out there who are in need of an imaginary friend, and I’m stuck here with you.”

“But I need you,” Hannibal practically purred, stepping even closer to Will. 

Will cleared his throat, and blatantly shifted his gaze to avoid looking into Hannibal’s eyes. “Right, yes, of course. Who else are you going to show off too without risking your reputation in high society?”

Hannibal gave Will a small smile. “Do you think that I am a show off, Will?”

Will snorted and rolled his eyes. “It’s one of the few facts about you of which I am certain.” Then he cleared his throat, and continued to refuse to look at Hannibal as he spoke. “When is Mischa supposed to call?”

It was tempting to try and push Will harder for answers, but Hannibal graciously decided to back down. For now. “Around two. That should be around nine for her, which means she is calling before going to bed. I’m sure that she’ll be excited to speak with you.”

Will narrowed his eyes. “Yeah.” Then he ducked away from Hannibal, and moved elsewhere in the house. Hannibal found himself watching until Will was out of sight, and then frowned to himself. He couldn’t recall ever feeling quite so bothered by what someone thought of him. What was it about the so-called ‘imaginary’ man that intrigued him so much?

,,,

Hannibal enjoyed speaking with his sister, as easily excitable as she was, listening to her talk about school and her friends and how Aunt and Uncle had gotten her a dog recently. He should have resented anyone for taking away his precious limited time with the girl, but found that he did not mind so much when Will took the phone and hurried off to another room to speak with Mischa in private. Maybe part of it was because Will and Mischa were both his, so how could either of them steal the other from him?

Though that of course didn’t stop Hannibal from feeling curious about what Will and Mischa spoke about, but he would never be so crass as to intentionally listen in on a private conversation. Will had already seemed on edge enough as it was, lately. Maybe a nice cup of tea would help Will relax. And there was no reason that Hannibal couldn’t bring Will tea right at that moment, was there?

He made the tea quickly, and then walked slowly and kept his footsteps light and graceful before pausing outside Will’s partially open bedroom door. He could hear Will in the middle of a sentence. “-oh, and there was something else I wanted to ask you. It’s about Hannibal.” Hannibal perked up, and took a small step forward, quite interested in knowing what Will wanted to inquire about him. “Have you ever noticed how he’s a complete and utter pretentious asshole?” Then the door was suddenly pulled open wider, and Hannibal wondered what he’d done to give himself away.

Like always, he played it off as though he’d done nothing wrong, and instead held out the mug he had carried upstairs. “I thought that you might enjoy a soothing cup of tea.”

“Right,” Will drawled out. “Because I look so much like the type of person who would be soothed by tea. Besides, I don’t have to eat or drink, so there’s really no point in doing so unless it’s something particularly tasty. No reason for me to bother with tea. It’s just a bunch of overwatered herbs.” Then he held out the phone, ignoring the fact that both of Hannibal’s hands were occupied by mug handles. It was clear that Will had clearly hung up before Hannibal even arrived, meaning that he’d just been waiting for Hannibal to show up so that he could insult him. It was more amusing than anything, just how childish Will could act at times. 

Hannibal walked past Will and set the mug down on the coaster on Will’s bedside table. “I’ll just leave this here for you in case you change your mind about trying it. I’ll be in the kitchen making dinner if you need anything.” He quickly left the room, but he could still feel Will’s eyes on him, and Hannibal’s lips curled up into a sly grin once he was sure that Will wouldn’t be able to see it.

He wasn’t sure of exactly what kind of game was being held between them, but Hannibal knew that it had been quite a while since he’d found himself having so much fun just from playing.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Idk whether you guys prefer chapters from Hannibal's pov or Will's, so I'm trying to just mix it up a bit, but if anyone has a preference, feel free to let me know! :D

It wasn’t as though Hannibal’s current classes required much attention from him, since he’d already done all of his readings in advance. Which was nice, because it meant that he had plenty of time to observe Will. At first, Will had preferred to wait out in the hallways, but he must’ve gotten bored of it pretty quickly, because he soon started sitting in on Hannibal’s classes, and seemed to actually enjoy them. 

Though maybe it made sense, in some ways, because Will had claimed that his role as an ‘imaginary friend’ was meant to be helping people, which meant that knowing more about how to handle medical situations could be quite useful. There was always the potential of small children getting injured. 

He found himself paying close attention to Will as Will paid attention to the professor. It wasn’t like Will sat there and took notes, but there was something quite fascinating about the look of utter concentration on his face as he took in the information being given. It was also nice to know that as smart as Will was, he clearly didn’t know everything, or else he’d find it pointless to get so caught up in learning new things.

Then class was over, and they were on their way back home- and no matter what Will said, it really was both of their homes by now. It’s where Will lived and spent all of his free time, afterall. Will was silent during the car ride, and was silent when they went inside. Curious, Hannibal found himself following Will, wondering where he would end up.

Will went to Hannibal’s study, and if it were anyone else, Hannibal would be quite bothered by the rudeness of just walking into his private space without permission. But Hannibal found himself thinking quite often that those little acts of rudeness were strangely charming when they came from Will. 

He watched as Will looked around before eventually grabbing one of Hannibal’s journals right off of a shelf, and then plopped down right in Hannibal’s chair as if he owned it. He didn’t even acknowledge Hannibal, despite the fact that he had to know he was there, and he leaned back and propped his feet up on the desk as he opened the journal to a random page in the middle. “Find some interesting reading?” Hannibal asked politely.

Will peered up over the top of the book, adopting a surprised look as if he’d somehow missed Hannibal following him into the room. “No, actually. Dull as dirt,” Will said lightly. Hannibal narrowed his eyes, but didn’t think that there was anything to say in response to that, at least not if he didn’t want to sound particularly childish. Something that Will didn’t seem to have any problem with appearing as. “For some reason, all the deepest, innermost thoughts of Hannibal Lecter don’t register as anything particularly worth reading.”

“Perhaps I don’t keep my ‘deepest, innermost thoughts’ in a place that any nosey person could read them,” Hannibal suggested.

Will just shrugged. “Perhaps. Or maybe you’re just a very boring person, Mr. Lecter.” Then he grinned, and Hannibal wondered why he was so fascinated by someone who found it so fun to blatantly insult him. Then Will hopped to his feet, leaving the chair at a strange angle, and dirt smudges on the top of the desk. He dropped the journal down, not caring when it landed in a way that crinkled several of the pages. He walked past Hannibal, and didn’t speak again until he was in the doorway, his back towards Hannibal. “So, what’s for dinner?” Then he kept walking, without even giving Hannibal a chance to respond.

,,,

Will had decided not to go into the classroom with Hannibal, saying that there was nothing productive for him to do in there when the rest of the class was taking a test. That was understandable enough, though Hannibal found a strange feeling in his stomach at the thought of Will being out of his sight for so long. Though he was pretty sure that if sightline was the only thing keeping Will from disappearing, the other man would have been gone long ago already.

Hannibal was one of the first students to finish his exam, though of course he would never rush through and risk making any foolish mistakes on it. Then he headed out into the hallway. He knew that Will couldn’t be too far away, since the distance he was able to travel from Hannibal seemed to only shrink when they were away from the house.

Hannibal walked around the corner, to the section of the hallway that was lined with benches, and then stopped short. Sure enough, Will was sitting on one of the uncomfortable wooden benches. But even more notable was the head resting on his lap as he read quietly out loud from a book that Hannibal couldn’t be bothered to recognize.

How was this even possible? Hannibal knew that Will could only be seen by him and Mischa. Though he had always been capable of interacting with physical objects, but even so. Hannibal marched over to where Will was sitting, and roughly grabbed Will’s arm to yank him up, watching with some small amount of satisfaction as the book tumbled to the floor and the stranger’s head thumped down onto the hard bench before they sat up, and looked around in confusion. “Sorry, must’ve fallen asleep,” they mumbled. Then they got up and hurried off, eyes never stopping on Will for even a moment.

Will tried to pull his arm free, but Hannibal only tightened his grip. “What the hell is your problem?” he hissed. 

Hannibal kept his face blank, though he was pretty sure that Will would be able to see through it anyways. “What were you doing?”

“I was reading- and anyways, it’s none of your business! What is wrong with you?”

Other students in the hallway were giving Hannibal strange looks, and he knew that he couldn’t afford to get a reputation as a nut, so he forcibly dragged Will out of the building and into his car before he spoke again. “You said only Mischa and I could see you.” He hated just how accusing he sounded. Why should he even care what Will did in his free time?”

Will crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re a psycho,” Will muttered. “And what I said is true. I was just reading, and then someone sat down, clearly exhausted, and fell asleep. I wasn’t just going to leave them there to wake up with a sore head and bad back!”

“Then why were you reading out loud?” Hannibal demanded.

Will rolled his eyes. “Because I’m an imaginary friend, Hannibal. My kind can only exist because children have imaginations and dreams. It’s where we have the most power. Even though they weren’t my client, I wanted to help. They were clearly suffering from some kind of nightmare, so I read to soothe them. Even if they couldn’t really hear me, somewhere in their subconscious, in their dreams, they’d be able to feel the effects of me calming them down. And what difference does it make to you, anyways?”

That was the real question, wasn’t it? What difference did it make to Hannibal? “I don’t share my things,” he finally said, though both of them were aware that that wasn’t a real answer at all.


	8. Chapter 8

Will made sure to stomp extra loudly as he went up the stairs, and then walked down the hallway, opening and slamming shut every door that he passed by. He turned around and went back the other way to repeat his actions. He was actually a little surprised by just how long Hannibal let him continue stomping and slamming doors, but eventually he succeeded at wearing the man down.

He heard the sound of Hannibal slowly walking up the stairs, and then pausing on the top step. “Will,” he said with a voice full of exasperation. “Might I ask why you are throwing a temper tantrum?”

Will took the extra second to slam the door he’d been in the middle of opening, and then turned to face Hannibal with his arms crossed over his chest. “I’m a grown imaginary friend. I don’t have tantrums,” he grumbled. When Hannibal didn’t deign to respond to that, Will’s shoulders slumped down. So maybe it was a little bit of a tantrum. But he wasn’t the one in the wrong here! “You just left that poor dog there, Hannibal! In the middle of the road!” He already knew about Hannibal’s extra curricular activities, but this was on a whole different level.

Hannibal frowned. “Will, there was nothing that I could have done. And besides, do you know how difficult it is to get blood out of car seats?”

“Do you?” Will shot back before he could think better of it. He quickly hurried on, not wanting Hannibal to think too hard on Will’s question. He wasn’t sure what would happen if Hannibal knew that Will knew about him, but he was sure that it wouldn’t be anything relevant to their current situation. “How can it be so easy for you to just abandon an injured, helpless-”

Hannibal just scoffed. “I have no need for such messes in my life, Will. Now stop with the tantrum. I’m going to go make dinner.” He went back down the stairs, and Will had to resist the urge to just scream out loud. 

Then an idea struck him. Hannibal was usually completely occupied whenever he was in the kitchen, which meant that there should be enough time to do a little digging around. He hurried straight to Hannibal’s room, though this time he didn’t slam the door shut behind him, and began looking around in earnest.

He pulled every book off of the shelves and fanned through them, opened every dresser drawer, dug through the entire closet. Almost half an hour passed before Will thought that he might just have to admit defeat. The only way Will could leave the boundary set by him being an imaginary friend would be if he had the contract physically in his hand, and Hannibal seemed to have figured that out. Maybe he was even keeping it down in the secret cellar, where he believed Will would never be able to discover it. 

Then again, Hannibal could be a rather egotistical person, no matter what kind of humble persona he tried to wear around others. And he seemed quite paranoid at times, at least in regards to Will (and that was a whole ‘nother mystery by itself). Will quietly crept down the stairs, and peered into the kitchen.

Hannibal’s jacket was draped over the back of one of the island chairs, and Hannibal himself stood facing the stove, sleeves rolled up to reveal rather nice- rather normal looking arms. Will pulled away so that he could take off his shoes and set them aside, and then slowly stepped into the kitchen in just his socks. He reached out for the jacket, mind instantly running through all the possibilities. He’d probably only have enough time to search one pocket, so he needed to make it count.

Or maybe he didn’t. With one last cautious glance at Hannibal, Will grabbed the entire jacket and then made a run for it. He didn’t want to attempt taking on the stairs because there was too much risk of tripping or slowing down, so instead he bee-lined for the downstairs bathroom, slamming and locking the door behind him. 

He took a moment to catch his breath, and then did a patdown of the jacket. He found a couple of pens, a small blank pad of paper, and Hannibal’s phone. Nothing else. He felt up all the seams to see if there were any hidden places, but he didn’t feel anything extra. Will squeezed his eyes shut, and sank down to the floor, flinging the jacket into the open toilet just because he could. 

He could hear the very slow approach that Hannibal took, clearly not worried at all about what Will could get up to with the jacket. He knocked politely on the door. “Will? Are you alright?”

“You suck!” Will called back. After the first time he’d seen Hannibal in the secret part of the basement, he’d gone out of his way to not have to see such things again, but he knew without a doubt that it could not have been a one-time thing for Hannibal. But Will did nothing to stop it. Which made him complicit to those deaths. And now yet another death was going to be on his hands because he’d done nothing to stop it from happening. “I hate you,” he choked out.

There was a very long moment of silence, and then the click of the door behind unlocked, and Will scooted over so that he wouldn’t fall over when the door opened. Maybe later he’d take the time to think about how creepy it was that Hannibal had keys to his bathrooms. Hannibal stayed in the doorway, as if he was somehow doing Will a favor and giving him some space. His eyes flicked over to the jacket that was half-soaked in toilet water and there was a slight disapproving frown on his face, but then it went away, and he turned back to Will. “What is this about?”

Will rolled his eyes. “You know what this is about. You just left that dog there to die. You just…”

Hannibal gave Will a long, searching look. “Will, you are not responsible for saving every wretched creature that wanders out into the road.” Will turned his head away, refusing to look at Hannibal. Hannibal crouched down in front of Will, and reached out to rest his hand on Will’s shoulder. “Sometimes life is simply unfair. Does that make it necessary to ruin one of my nicer jackets?”

Will let out a bitter sounding laugh. “Yeah, it really does.”

Hannibal continued to stare at Will, while Will continued to refuse to look at him. “Will-”

“I never ask for anything, Hannibal. But I asked for this one thing, and you just wouldn’t. So I have every right in the world to hate you. I never asked to be stuck with you, but I’ve done my best to deal with this situation, but you just keep doing everything in your power to make it unbearable.” He stood abruptly and stomped out of the bathroom. “I’m going to bed.”

,,,

Will was just lying in his bed, staring up at the ceiling, and he’d been like that for who-knows-how-long. Then he was interrupted from the nothing that he was doing by a firm knock on the door. He didn’t answer, but it swung open a moment later anyways, and Hannibal took a single step into the room. He cleared his throat when Will still didn’t look over at him. “I have a present for you. In the backyard.”

Will was tempted to just continue lying there and ignoring Hannibal, but he couldn’t deny that he was at least a little bit curious. He couldn’t recall anyone ever getting him a gift before. Well, there had been one or two drawings from some of his previous clients, which he of course cherished with all his heart, but he highly doubted that Hannibal would ever be able to give him anything worth that much.

He followed Hannibal down the stairs and out into the backyard, and blinked in surprise when he saw that it was already dark out. He’d been lying in bed for a lot longer than he’d thought, apparently. Hannibal just nodded out into the yard, and Will continued forward onto the lawn. He paused when he spotted the furry lump curled up there, and hurried forward, dropping to his knees next to it.

He could see immediately that it wasn’t the same dog they’d seen on the road earlier- that one was probably long dead and it hurt Will to realize that. The dog in front of him was small, still just a puppy, and had a clean-ish coat, just a bit of grass and dirt on it that had probably come from sitting out in Hannibal’s yard. 

Will scooped up the puppy, who let out a sleepy sounding yap, and hugged him close to his chest. He turned to look up at Hannibal. “You got me a dog?”

Hannibal shrugged. “It’s not as though I don’t have the financial resources to provide for one. And of course, you’ll be responsible for all of his care and upkeep, as well as training him If he creates even a single mess inside, you are solely responsible for cleaning it up.” He made it sound like it was no big deal, but Will knew Hannibal well enough by now to know just how much the young man hated the idea of an uncontrollable element in his home, potentially causing a great mess. 

“What about walks?”

Hannibal paused for a moment, then offered Will a small smile. “I am already known for being an early riser. Perhaps we could take him on walks together, and use the time to get to know each other a little better.”

Will tried to hold it back, but he couldn’t stop a big grin from breaking out across his face. “You’ll probably have to hold the leash. Otherwise if anyone looks out their window they might see it levitating around like some kind of weird magic trick.”

“I suppose that I’ll be able to manage,” Hannibal said with a faux put-upon air. “What are you going to name him?”

Will gave the dog a kiss on the top of his head, and then looked back over at Hannibal. “Hm. He looked like a… Winston, I think. Yeah, Winston.”

“A noble sounding name for something so small,” Hannibal said approvingly. Then he hesitated before asking, “Do you still hate me?”

Will reached up to scratch at the back of his neck, feeling awkward. “Uh… about that- Hannibal, I may not technically be a human being, but I think that I’m still human in all the ways that really matter, which means that I say things in the heat of the moment that aren’t necessarily true. I’m not going to lie, I’m still very angry about how things happened earlier, and I still think you should have stopped the car and at least tried to help, but I am also really grateful for Winston.” He stood up, and walked into the house, carrying Winston with him. “It’s too cold for him to sleep out there,” he explained without being prompted. “Good night, Hannibal.”

“Good night, Will.” As Will headed upstairs to his room, where he was no doubt going to let Winston think it was okay to flounce about on all of the furniture, Hannibal decided that he would do his best not to anger Will again for the foreseeable future. He didn’t want to live in a house full of apology dogs, though it was nice to know that there was a way to buy back Will’s affection. Not that he needed to, because he didn’t care if Will hated him or not. It would just make living together more inconvenient, that’s all.


	9. Chapter 9

Hannibal already understood that Will didn’t really sleep, at least not in the same way that human beings did, but still, he decided to take advantage of the sight of Will lying on the couch, eyes closed. He looked beautiful like that, and Hannibal’s fingers itched to sketch in every lovely detail. 

He’d just finished his outline when Will finally spoke. “Here’s a question for you: how long do you think that you can watch someone sleep before it officially falls into the category of being creepy?”

Hannibal laughed as he tucked his pencil between the pages, and then gently closed his sketchbook and set it aside. “I suppose it depends on how long you think you could stand to be watched. Besides, you were not asleep, so your question is a moot point.”

Will stretched his arms up over his head, and Hannibal reveled in the strip of skin revealed when Will’s shirt rode up a bit. Then Will swung his legs down to the floor and stood up. “There’s something seriously wrong with you, you know,” he told Hannibal in the same tone that one might use to discuss the weather. “Don’t you have homework or something to be doing?”

One corner of Hannibal’s mouth stretched up into a grin. “Why do you ask? Are you concerned about my performance in school?”

Will scoffed. “If you don’t graduate, you won’t be able to get a good job, and then we’ll have to move into a dinky little apartment somewhere.”

“Have you gotten used to the luxuries of life with the Lecters so soon?”

Almost on cue, Winston came running into the room, and leapt up so that his front legs were pressed against Will’s thighs. Will reached down to pet the dog’s head. “Couldn’t care less about that stuff. A lot of apartments don’t allow pets, though, and that’s something I wouldn’t be okay with.”

“If I didn’t know better, Will, I’d say that you care about that mutt more than you do about your time with me.”

Will stuck out his tongue. “Good thing you don’t know better, then, isn’t it?” Then he gently nudged Winston back down to the floor and led the dog out of the room. Hannibal laughed despite himself, and picked up his sketchbook to continue working. He wanted to finish before even a single detail could slip his memory. 

,,,

It was just past four in the morning, and Hannibal and Will were taking Winston on one of his many daily walks. Nobody else seemed to be out and about yet, so Will held the leash, and was happy to run after his dog. Hannibal watched with amusement. He never thought that he could actually enjoy something like walking a dog (though it probably helped that he wasn’t the one who had to pick up the dog’s waste). 

Will never got too far out of Hannibal’s sight, though, because Hannibal wouldn’t let him. Too much risk of Will getting himself caught up in some kind of trouble. He seemed the type to be a magnet for it. As they walked, Winston started barking much more than usual, and then dashed ahead. Will hurried after his pet, and around the house on the corner. A moment later, Will’s voice called out for him, “Hannibal!”

He didn’t sound scared, exactly, but definitely concerned, so Hannibal hurried forward to see what had happened. There, just on the side of the road, was a dead body. From the looks of it, it had been a hit and run. Hannibal didn’t want to get involved, for obvious reasons, but Winston’s barking seemed to have woken up the occupants of the nearest house, and someone poked their head out the window. “Can’t you get your damn dog to shut up?”

Hannibal nodded towards the corpse before responding. “There seems to be a dead body out here. Would you mind calling the police?”

That seemed to shut the neighbor up. Soon, there were several other people crowding around to see the body. Humans really were such morbidly curious creatures, weren’t they? Hannibal could have easily slipped away from the crowd, but these were his neighbors, and if anyone mentioned that he’d been the one to find the body but then had left, it could look suspicious, and the last thing Hannibal needed was the police on his back.

So he stuck around until the sound of the sirens got closer, and then he let himself be pushed back as the police set up their tacky yellow tape. Hannibal kept an eye on Will the entire time, and saw that he’d mostly remained crouched down next to Winston to pet the dog. Hannibal wondered if this was the first dead body Will had ever seen. 

Eventually, after giving his statement to the police about how he’d just been walking his dog when he’d spotted the body, Hannibal was allowed to go home, and he knew that Will was following him silently. When they got back into the house, Will headed straight to the closet to fetch the bag of dog food so that he could feed Winston. No words were exchanged between them, and then Will hurried right up to bed before Hannibal could even ask if he was alright.

,,,

Hannibal had seemed so calm at the sight of a dead body, which worried Will. Of course he’d already known that Hannibal was a killer, but he hadn’t even batted an eye at the body they’d stumbled across. That was so dangerous. If the police had been paying more attention, they might have caught the gleam of curious amusement in Hannibal’s eyes. They might have thought that Hannibal had something to do with the crime. Hannibal was already practically an expert at hiding himself from the people around him, but he needed to get even better at it. Because Will certainly did not intend to spend the rest of his life trapped in a cell with Hannibal Lecter.

,,,

Hannibal was just finishing the prep work for dinner when Will wandered into the kitchen. Hannibal waited patiently for Will to break the silence between them, and he didn’t have to wait very long. “I want you to take me to the opera.”

Hannibal paused for a moment with the knife still in the air, then quickly resumed chopping- though he knew that Will had already seen the reaction. “What’s brought this on all of a sudden? I thought you said that you had no interest in such ‘frou-frou’ things.”

He glanced over his shoulder to see Will shrug. “I don’t know. It just seems that if I’m really going to be stuck with you for a while, then I should at least make an attempt to get into the things that you’re into. And hey, on the up side, it’s not like you have to pay for an extra ticket for me.”

“Unless you’d like to stand throughout the performance or sit on my lap, I think I’ll still have to purchase two tickets.” Will made a strange choking noise, and Hannibal quickly turned around to see what the problem was. Will was just staring at him with wide eyes, mouth forming a shocked ‘o’. Hannibal cleared his throat, unsure of what had just happened. “Well. Even if no one else will be able to see you, I will have to insist that you dress properly for the occasion.”

Will nodded, and cleared his throat. “Fine, yeah, that’s fine. We can pop down to the Salvation Army tomorrow.” When he only grinned in response to Hannibal’s frown, Hannibal knew that Will was just teasing him, and he found the experience of such to be strangely enjoyable. He was interested to find out what else Will had in store for him.

,,,

They ended up with the time to go to the opera a couple of months later, and Hannibal found that he was quite pleased with how Will looked in his tuxedo. It had been purchased off the rack, because Hannibal hadn’t been able to think of any way to have a tailor work on Will without being able to see him. Too much risk of needles being jabbed into delicate flesh. But he’d taken Will’s measurements before they’d gone to the store, and Hannibal had managed to do quite well, while Will had been standing with his nose pressed up against the windows of the shop, watching all the people go by.

Hannibal brought Will to his favorite opera house, the one that he tried not to attend too often because it was more high-end, and he hated relying on money sent by his aunt and uncle. Unfortunately he was not yet in a job that would make him a decent income. In fact, he currently had no job at all, because he felt that it was more important to focus on his schoolwork in order to someday become the best surgeon that he could possibly be.

He ignored the strange look he got from the usher when he handed over both of the tickers he’d purchased. Will and Hannibal both went to mingle around with some of the others, because there was still plenty of time before the show would begin. Every so often, Will would clear his throat, or gently jab Hannibal with his elbow. It wasn’t until they were headed to their seats that Hannibal realized what the purpose had been. Will had only drawn Hannibal’s attention to himself when he did or said something that wasn’t quite normal. 

As they sank into their seats, Hannibal leaned over to whisper into Will’s ear, quietly enough that no one sitting near them would be able to listen in. “Are you trying to train me, Will? Are you implying that I’m rude?”

Will shot him a wide grin. “So you are capable of learning?”

Hannibal refrained from rolling his eyes as the lights around them dimmed, and then he shifted in his seat so that he could fully face the stage. Every so often, Hannibal would glance over at Will, and found himself pleased by the enraptured look on the other man’s face. It gave him a strange sense of pride, despite Hannibal having nothing to do with the creation or production of the opera. He also enjoyed that he didn’t need to translate or explain everything. That part made sense at least, since Will had probably been assigned to children all over the world, and would need to be able to understand them. 

It was a beautiful production, but Hannibal realized that he’d probably spent more time watching Will than he had the performance. And yet he wasn’t upset by the realization. Will was just as beautiful as any classy opera was. And once it was over and they were back in the car, Will reached out to put his hand over Hannibal’s for just a moment. “Thank you. It was very kind of you to bring me.” 

“Of course, Will. It was my pleasure.” Then he started the car before he could get lost in all kinds of thoughts that were threatening to take over his brain, all of them about Will.

,,,

When they returned to the house, Will went up to his room, and gave Winston a triumphant grin. “I think it’s actually working. I’m going to train Hannibal to be more human, and then he’ll be safe if anyone ever tries to investigate him. Aren’t I clever, Winston?” The dog just stared at him, tongue lolling out of his mouth. Will laughed as he flopped down onto the bed and pulled Winston into a hug. “Oh alright, you win, you’re the clever boy.” Then he flopped back and stared up at the ceiling, wondering if it would really be so bad to be trapped with Hannibal for a little while longer.


	10. Chapter 10

“ _Isn’t that great?_ ”

Will blinked a few times, and tried to force himself to focus on the conversation going on over the phone. “Sorry, I must have missed that. Would you mind repeating yourself?”

“ _I don’t think you missed it, but just in case- we’re coming to visit you guys soon! School break starts in three weeks, and then we’ll be heading to America again. Can you believe that it’s already been two years since I last saw you?_ ” 

He couldn’t, actually, and Will suddenly cursed his inability to keep track of time. How had he not noticed how long he’d been living without Mischa, without his job or responsibilities? Since he’d been living with Hannibal Lecter? How had he ever managed to grow so comfortable living with a murderer when his usual clients were innocent children?

Will wasn’t sure how he could possibly actually say any of that, so he settled for telling Mischa, “I can’t wait to see you.” And it was the complete truth. He’d spent years with her, and even if she had given him away like he was an old toy, he still cared about her. “Make sure you bring your appetite, because Hannibal has only gotten better at cooking since I’ve been here.” Then he chatted with Mischa for a few more minutes about random things, before finally she said that she had to go, and she hung up. 

Will stared at the phone wordlessly for a moment, and then got up to find Hannibal. He was in his study, flipping through a textbook and writing down the occasional note about what he was reading. “Hannibal? I think I’d like to go on a walk.”

Hannibal nodded, and started to close his textbook and stand up at the same time. “Yes, a break might be just what I need-”

“Alone,” Will interrupted. “Can I?” He knew that his range was determined solely by what Hannibal was willing to allow him, and so far, he’d never been able to actually go out and do anything by himself. “Please?” he added, hoping that Hannibal would appreciate the good manners of saying ‘please’ enough to grant Will this request.

Hannibal gave Will a long look, the kind that always felt like he was staring right into Will’s soul (though that brought up a whole bunch of questions about whether imaginary friends even had souls or not), and then, after what seemed like forever, he sank back down into his seat. “Only in the neighborhood. Wouldn’t want you wandering into any dangerous situations.”

Will thanked Hannibal with a grateful smile, wanting to encourage more acts of kindness in the future. Then he hurried outside before Hannibal could change his mind. He was tempted to grab Winston, but he didn’t want one of the neighbors to spot them and assume that Winston had run off and was wandering on his own.

Besides, Will had already said that he needed a bit of time alone, and who knew when Hannibal would be willing to offer him such a thing again? So he breathed in the crisp air, stuck his hands into his pockets, and then took off at a leisurely pace. 

It would be nice to see Mischa again after so long, though Will could only hope that Hannibal wouldn’t act weird about it. Even if Will hadn’t been strictly keeping track of time, he had noticed that lately, it seemed as though Hannibal acted more and more crazy (not counting the fact that he’d already been a murderer for quite a while), at least in regards to Will. Which is why it was such a pleasant surprise that Hannibal had agreed to let Will have a nice little walk by himself.

At the end of the block, Will spotted a lovely looking tree. It looked like the exact kind of picturesque tree that little children dreamed of being able to climb, and Will grinned to himself. Surely someday he’d have clients again, and when he did, he’d be able to let them live vicariously through him.

So Will jogged over to the tree, stretched his arms out in front of him- mostly just for the show of it- and then tilted his head back to look up at the top of the tree. It really was perfect. Will reached for a low branch and used it to pull himself up, ignoring the way that the little chips of bark dug into his palms. 

Even though it was a pretty tall tree, it didn’t take very long for Will to climb as high as he could, and then he settled on the highest branch, leaning his back up against the trunk of the tree. He looked out, and realized that he had a perfect view of the sun setting. He almost wished that he had Hannibal’s talent for art, or at the very least, a camera, to capture such a beautiful sight. But then he decided that it was best to leave the view free and undisturbed. Something that existed for his eyes only- and there were so few things that belonged to Will and Will alone.

He decided to stay in the tree and continue to watch the sun until it was gone completely, leaving only the stars and the glimpses of light from house windows to keep the street illuminated. Will was quite comfortable where he was, despite the cool breeze that had taken over once the sun had disappeared, and he found himself thinking that he wanted to stay up in the tree forever. It was just so much more peaceful up there, and he didn’t have to worry about anything else. 

The peace was shattered, though, when Will found himself suddenly standing in the entrance hall to Hannibal’s house, little bark crumbs still clinging to the back of his shirt. Hannibal was standing there, and it looked almost like his eyes were glowing bright red. “So for my generosity you were trying to leave me?”

Will furrowed his eyebrows, and then quickly shook his head. “No, of course not. Just because I want to spend a couple hours on my own doesn’t mean I was trying to run away. Not that I could even if I wanted to. You’re the one who sets the restrictions on my movements, remember?” He didn’t even bother trying to keep the irritation out of his voice. 

Hannibal scowled, and stalked forward, forcing Will to back up until he hit the wall and there was nowhere else to go. “You belong here, Will.” Then he stepped back, and did his best to put on a mask of indifference, though Will already knew him far too well for that to work. “No more walks by yourself,” he said coldly before walking away. And Will couldn’t help questioning if Hannibal had only loosened the reins so that he’d have an excuse to tighten them even further. 

Two days later, Will saw on the news that three bodies were found in the same spot, having been positioned to look like they were sitting at a dinner table, each dining on the leg of the one next to them. Hannibal threw a grand dinner party, and Will wondered whether it was even possible at this point to save Hannibal Lecter from himself.


	11. Chapter 11

It was strange to see Mischa again, because even though Will knew he looked the same as ever, he could immediately see that Mischa looked so much older. Two years was a lot of time for a teenager, much more than it was for an imaginary friend. Hannibal probably looked different now as well, though it was harder for Will to notice, since he’d seen the man everyday for those two years. 

And Murasaki, though slightly aged, still looked quite young despite her many years. Will glanced behind the two women, and frowned. “Where’s Robert?”

Of course Murasaki couldn’t hear him, but Hannibal repeated the question, looking as confused as Will felt. “And where is Uncle?”

Murasaki sniffed once, and glanced down at Mischa. “The girl didn’t tell you? He died about six months ago. Heart attack.”

Will had obviously never been close to Mischa’s guardians, but he still felt a pang of grief for what Mischa must have been going through. And he wanted to ask her why she’d never said anything, but already knew that she couldn’t answer anything with her aunt in the room, at least not without looking crazy. Luckily, Hannibal’s thoughts seemed to be aligned with Will’s. “It must have slipped her mind,” he said in his most neutral tone, while giving Mischa a searching look.

Mischa wrapped her arms around her middle, and shrugged. “S’ppose so.” Then she looked towards Will and gave him a very subtle nod before looking back at Hannibal. “Why don’t you and Aunt go and catch up? I want to make some tea. And I can do it myself,” she added pointedly. 

Hannibal kept looking at her, clearly eager to know what was going on, but he obeyed her by gesturing towards the sitting room and leading Murasaki there. As soon as their backs were turned, Mischa grabbed Will’s hand and pulled him into the kitchen. She leaned back against the counter, and then looked up at him with a desperation in her eyes that Will had not seen when when he had first met her. “Mischa-”

She lunged forward to press herself against him, and Will’s arms automatically reached up to hug her. “Please come back with me, Will. You were mine first, before you were Hannibal’s. And I need you now more than he does. Please.”

Will gently ran his fingers through Mischa’s hair, and then pulled away from her enough that he could look her in the eyes. “What’s going on? Is this about Robert’s death?”

Mischa shrugged one shoulder. “Of course I’m devastated that he’s gone, but the problem is who he left me behind with. I don’t know if you noticed, but Murasaki never liked me. She’s not my biological aunt, or Hannibal’s, but at least Hannibal was always polite and smart and brought a good name to our family. But she always thought that I was just a dumb, messy little kid, and she thinks that I’m a disgrace. Ever since Uncle died, she’s been calling me Matis, even though no one’s called me that since I was basically a baby, and gave away all my dresses to charity, and she keeps nagging me to get my haircut and I just- I can’t be alone with her anymore. Please, Will.”

As much as Will wanted to help Hannibal, his original assignment had been to help Mischa, and he agreed that she needed him more than Hannibal did. “And there’s no way to leave that home? Hannibal loves you very much; perhaps you could move here with him?”

“Not until I’m an adult,” she told him in a miserable voice. “Uncle left some things for me in his Will, but Murasaki is the one who gets to hold onto them until I’m old enough, and I’m afraid that if I go, she’ll destroy them all. I don’t care about the money, but there are precious other things. And besides, as much as I love my brother, my entire life is back home. It’s where my friends and classes and job are. Please, Will, I’m begging you.” 

There was no way for Will to say no to her, so he pulled her in for another hug. “Do you remember your contract, Mischa? The one you gave to Hannibal so that I would stay here with him? I cannot go with you unless he gives it back, but I’m sure that if you explain the situation, he will-”

Mischa snorted, though it turned into a small sob. “Oh in that case it’s entirely hopeless!”

“What are you-?”

Mischa rolled her eyes. “Don’t be foolish, Will. Hannibal’s never going to willingly let you go. The way he talks about you, and the way he looks at you… I don’t stand a chance. He loves me, but that doesn’t mean he’d give away something that he considers to be his. Oh Will, there must be some other way. I can’t-” her voice broke, and she reached up to press her hands over her face, and her shoulders shook. “Please don’t just leave me alone. I need you.”

Will nodded, and found himself being filled with a newfound determination. Sure, Mischa was now much older than his usual clients, but it was still his job to do whatever he could to help her. And while he knew that Hannibal could be strange about things, he was sure that the man would do whatever he could to help his precious sister. “I’ll talk to him, I promise. I’ll make sure he understands the right thing to do. You’re not going to have to deal with this alone, Mischa.”

Then he made the tea so that she could take a few minutes to compose herself before the two of them joined the adults in the other room. Hannibal said that he was quite sorry to learn of Robert’s passing, and Will was surprised to find that the sentiment sounded genuine. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent on pointless small talk, and then Mischa and Murasaki headed to the guest rooms that Hannibal had freshened up for them. Unfortunately, there was technically only one guest room, which meant that Mischa was staying in Will’s room. Last time Hannibal’s family had visited they had stayed in a hotel, but today he insisted that they stay here, to support each other. Since that left Will with the choices of either staying in the living room all night, or staying in Hannibal’s room, he was pretty sure he knew why Hannibal had pushed for it.

Will followed Hannibal once the man headed up for bed, and cleared his throat loudly. “I need to talk to you. It’s about something extremely urgent. Mischa isn’t safe with Murasaki, not by herself anyways. She’s being mistreated there.” Hannibal’s eyes immediately showed just how dangerous he could get, and Will was glad to see how angry Hannibal was on his sister’s behalf. “She said that she can’t leave yet, not if she wants to keep the things left to her by Robert, and that her home is still there, even if Murasaki is not kind. So I think that-”

Hannibal’s eyes widened as understanding filled them. “You want to leave me,” he said flatly. “She wants to take you away from me.”

Will put his hands on his hips, and gave Hannibal his best annoyed look. “She’s still a child, and she needs emotional support and help, and you are a grown man with friends and peers and between the two of you, I think it’s pretty clear which one is in more need of my-”

“Are you honestly foolish enough to think that this is about any ‘unkindness’ of our aunt? No, Will, this is about Mischa wanting something that belongs to me, and she knows that you are naive enough to try and argue on her behalf if she shows you a few tears. Perhaps she has grown to miss your companionship, or maybe she is just looking to punish me for something beyond my understanding, but either way, this is not about her needing you or your protection.”

Will scowled. “You didn’t see her, Hannibal. There’s no way that-” he cut himself off to take a deep breath in, and then slowly let it out. Hannibal wasn’t yelling, and Will couldn’t afford to either. “Mischa isn’t like that. She isn’t like you.”

Then Hannibal gave him one of those shark-like grins that always sent shivers down Will’s spine. “Oh, but she is. She is far too much like me, in fact. We are siblings, Will, but the traumas that she suffered are beyond even my knowledge, and I am well aware of how much those types of things can change a person, and I am not for a second going to believe that she was able to remain unaffected, no matter how young she was. She is the same as I am, Will. Very covetous of her things. Giving you to me was apparently nothing more than a small loan in her eyes, and now she’s come back to collect.”

“I can’t believe I’m hearing this. You’re being absolutely ridiculous right now. This isn’t part of some scheme or masterminded plot, or whatever the hell you think is going on. This is about a vulnerable girl asking for help, and you’re the one in the best position to give it to her and you’re refusing. You’re just acting like some kind of jealous idiot! This is your sister we’re talking about! She needs my help!” He knew that he had started yelling despite what he’d already decided, but he couldn’t stop himself, and it’s not like he’d wake up Murasaki, no matter how loudly he shouted. “You are being insane!” 

There was no immediate response, other than for Hannibal to begin unbuttoning his vest and getting undressed for the night. When Will went to storm out of the room, though, Hannibal reached out to grab his arm and tug him back. “Aunt might find it odd if my door keeps opening and closing in the middle of the night.”

Will gulped, and then shrugged. “Why should I care what your aunt thinks of you? From what Mischa’s said, it sounds as though she isn’t a woman whose opinion should matter at all.”

“Does that make any sense to you? Do you recall what she was like when you lived in the same house as her? Did she ever strike you as being someone who would provide an unsafe environment for Mischa?”

Will scowled. “I don’t know. Pretty much all of my time was spent around Mischa, and she hardly spent anytime with Murasaki at all, quite possibly for very good reason. But people can change, even if she wasn’t so bad back then. Losing her husband and being stuck to raise a teenager on her own could have been too much stress for her, and caused her to snap. There’s no way to know for certain, but when it comes to abuse, I’d much rather err on the side of being too careful. What’s the saying- better safe than sorry?” 

“I am not giving you back to her,” Hannibal insisted. 

It looked like Hannibal wanted to say something else as well, but Will quickly spoke up. “Just because you hold a contract that binds me, you think you have the right to tell me what I’m allowed to do and where I’m allowed to go? Why don’t I have the right to choose for myself where I want to be? Who are you to make all those choices for me?”

“You are mine,” Hannibal said slowly, carefully, like he was speaking to a child that was too stupid to have caught on to something obvious. “You are not going anywhere.”

Will balled his hands into fists. “I don’t belong to you, Hannibal! No matter what some contract might say! I’m still a-”

Suddenly Hannibal was right up in Will’s face, and Will’s eyes widened as the instinct to back away and apologize ran through him. But Will held his ground, because he knew that he was right. “You do belong to me,” he said in one of his most dangerous tones. “You are not going anywhere, especially not across the ocean.” Then he backed away, a casual look about him as if he had not said anything strange. He resumed the process of getting undressed, but Will just stood there, unsure of what to think. He knew that Mischa wasn’t just using him, but how was he supposed to help her if Hannibal was going to be so awful?

,,,

As soon as Hannibal started to fall asleep, Will let out a loud shout to wake him back up, and then continued to do so all night so that Hannibal would not be able to get a good night’s rest. It was the least he deserved after deciding to leave his sister without aid in a time of great need. He was actually surprised that Hannibal didn’t try to retaliate. Maybe he thought that not being able to spend the night with Winston was already punishment enough.

,,,

Hannibal had always been an early riser, but he slept in a little bit extra, despite how ‘rude’ that supposedly was towards his guests. Will couldn’t help grinning at the petty victory, even though he knew that he really shouldn’t be quite so pleased with himself over it. But he was, so he was in a pretty decent mood as he made his way down to the kitchen.

Mischa was already up, and even though Will didn’t remember her being the type to enjoy getting up early when she didn’t have to, he decided to savor this opportunity to just spend some time with her. Considering she hadn’t even mentioned her uncle’s death during any of the many phone calls they shared, Will couldn’t help wondering what else had gone unsaid by her. 

Before he could ask her anything, though, she rushed over to him and grabbed his arm. “Will, can you ask Hannibal to take you and Murasaki to the opera?” Will blinked a few times in confusion, and she hurried on before he could ask any questions. “I just need some time to myself, and I know how much Hannibal likes the opera, so I’m sure he’d be willing to show off to her. And if you’re the one who asks, then I’m sure he’d agree. Please, Will?”

And how could he say no? Even though he felt like he’d just been ambushed, Will sighed and nodded. “Of course. I’m not sure if even he can manage to get us seats for tonight on such short notice, but certainly at some point during your visit.”

Mischa grinned, and then gave him a tight hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. You’re the best, Will.”

Later, Hannibal and Will headed out to take Winston on a walk. Mischa had volunteered to go in Hannibal’s place, but Hannibal had been very quick to shut that idea down. Will expected there to be a tense air between them, but it was surprisingly nice. After a few minutes, he cleared his throat. “We haven’t been out to see a show in a while. And I know that your aunt always enjoyed the fine performing arts. Maybe we should take her out to see something? Well, you should take her out, I’ll just tag along and make her wonder why you bought a third ticket.” Hannibal hummed thoughtfully but didn’t respond, so Will continued talking. He didn’t want to sound desperate or suspicious, but he wanted to give Mischa what she’d asked for. “I guess you could always say that you bought a ticket for Mischa but that she declined to go with us. That way you at least wouldn’t look like a crazy person.”

There was a long moment of silence, and then Hannibal finally gave a slight nod. “I suppose that we are due for an outing. Did you have anything particular in mind?”

Will reached up to scratch at the back of his neck. “Well… no. You have way better taste than me when it comes to picking these things. And I pretty much always end up enjoying your choices.”

Hannibal smiled at the perceived compliment in that, and he seemed more lively throughout the rest of the walk. Will wondered if he’d said anything too strange, but when Hannibal greeted Mischa like normal back at the house, he decided that he’d been successful in his mission.

,,,

They headed out two days later, and Mischa promised that she would stay in the house and ‘be good’. For the most part, everything went okay, but during the intermission when Will and Hannibal would usually quietly discuss what they’d seen so far, Hannibal had to instead converse with Murasaki. She seemed to agree with Hannibal on pretty much every point, and didn’t provide any interesting challenges to Hannibal’s interpretation. Will wasn’t sure why that annoyed him so much.

,,,

When everyone else headed up to bed, Will decided that he was going to spend the night in the study with Winston. He wasn’t expecting Mischa to show up at almost two in the morning, and she wandered into the room to plop down on the couch next to Will, reaching out to rub Winston’s head. “So has he owned your contract too, at some point?”

Will shook his head. “Very few animals have trouble seeing imaginary friends. I don’t question why, I just know that it works out for me.” He gave Mischa a sideways look. “What are you doing up so late?”

“I couldn’t sleep,” she answered quietly. “I got too excited about what I found while you were out.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out an old piece of notebook paper. Will’s eyes widened as he recognized it immediately. When he’d first been forced to stay with Hannibal, he had searched desperately for his contract, but had been unable to find it anywhere. “It’s mine again, which means that you can come home with me afterall, right? You can protect me?”

Will wasn’t sure why there was a sinking feeling in his stomach, but he knew that somehow, this was a bad idea. But Mischa needed him, needed someone to be there for her for the next couple of years while she endured life with Murasaki, so Will nodded. “Yeah. That’s wonderful, Mischa.” But as he watched her walk away a few minutes later, the contract clutched tightly in her hand, Will couldn’t help feeling as though he’d been played.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is going to loop back around to the present pretty soon. I just don't know whether I'll keep going forward from there, or if I'll just end it where it started.


	12. Chapter 12

Part of Will wanted to spend as much time as possible with Hannibal, since he knew that they only had a short amount of time left to see each other (and Will absolutely did not want to consider the implications of the simple fact that he was actually going to miss Hannibal). But the other part of him knew that he couldn’t, because he wouldn’t be able to keep the truth hidden from Hannibal, and he wasn’t going to risk Mischa not getting what she needed. 

So instead, Will chose the cowardly route, and did his absolute best to avoid being alone with Hannibal at any time. He knew that that was probably enough to make Hannibal suspicious, so Will explained it away as wanting to spend time with Mischa while he still could, and Hannibal seemed to grudgingly accept that. 

But the time ran out so quickly, much sooner than Will would have thought possible, and then it was time to go. The plane back required Mischa and Murasaki to be at the airport early enough in the morning to be considered the middle of the night, and Murasaki had assured Hannibal that she was perfectly fine with taking a taxi, and that he should get his rest. Will concurred, reminding Hannibal of the big test he had coming up that he needed to be well-rested for. 

Hannibal gave Mischa a going away present wrapped in pretty gold paper, and then pulled her in for a tight hug. He whispered something to her, though Will could tell that it was meant to be private, so he took a few steps away to avoid listening in. And then Hannibal and Mischa both headed to bed, while Murasaki remained downstairs.

Will motioned for Hannibal to go on without him, and then he followed Murasaki, feeling curious. He watched with wide eyes as she went to the fridge to pull out leftovers from the farewell feast Hannibal had prepared, and she scooped out a bit onto a plate. She dissected the food until it didn’t at all resemble what it had started as, and then pulled out a small sliver of the meat, and stared at it with an unreadable expression in her eyes. That’s when understanding struck Will in a way that it hadn’t even after he’d learned of Hannibal’s unusual hobby. It wasn’t just about the kills.

How many meals had Will eaten over the past two years that had been made for him by Hannibal? How many of those had contained human meat in them? Did that make Will a cannibal, or would he only be a cannibal if he ate other imaginary friends? And perhaps even more disturbing- why didn’t he feel like he was going to be sick? Wouldn’t that be a reasonable reaction to discovering such a gruesome truth?

As Will thought that, it occurred to him that Murasaki didn’t look particularly ill either. What kind of person wasn’t sickened by the thought of eating human flesh? Will just gulped, and even though he knew that Murasaki couldn’t see him anyways, he still slipped away, needing to put some distance between them.

,,,

In the end, leaving was much easier than Will had expected it to be, and for some reason, that made him feel even guiltier. Hannibal was fast asleep when Will woke up Mischa (he had the feeling that Murasaki wouldn’t be so gentle about it), and then the three of them left to go out to the waiting taxi. It was a silent ride to the airport, and then Mischa fell asleep on the plane, so there was no one for Will to talk to.

It felt like it took years for them to finally be back, and Will looked around the city as they were driven through it. How odd it felt to be coming back after just a couple of years. Usually his assignments didn’t overlap geographically, at least not without a couple hundred years in between, and in that amount of time, so much could change that it didn’t even look like the same place anymore. But this place did look mostly the same.

And the house looked just like Will remembered it, though there was definitely something much less lively about it now that Robert was gone. He had always been a man full of life, and even though Will didn’t really know either of Mischa’s guardians, he would have much preferred that she got left behind with her uncle, since he had apparently never harmed her the way Murasaki had. 

Mischa headed up to her room, and Will followed right behind her, though Mischa had only just dumped her bags down onto her bed before she was summoned by Murasaki. She shot Will a pleading look, and he reached out to take her hand as they went downstairs to find out what was going on.

Murasaki was in the sitting room, holding out the phone with an annoyed look on her face. “Who is Will?”

Will and Mischa spoke at the same time to ask, “What?” though of course Murasaki could only hear one of them. 

The woman sighed impatiently. “There are several messages from Hannibal that were left several hours ago, demanding if you know where to find someone named Will. I know it is rather late on his end now, but he sounded frantic enough that he’d probably appreciate hearing from you.” 

Mischa nodded and took the phone from her aunt, and then just stared at the woman for several long seconds before Murasaki turned and left the room, pointedly closing the door behind her. Mischa gave Will a worried glance, and then dialed Hannibal’s number. The phone only rang once before the call was answered. Will leaned in closer so that he’d be able to hear both sides of the conversation. “Is he with you? Have you stolen him? I swear that if you have him, Mischa Lecter-”

Will opened his mouth to confess the truth, even though he knew that Hannibal would feel quite hurt, but Mischa spoke before he could. Her voice came out sounding genuinely worried. “How could I have him, Hannibal? You’re the one with his contract, aren’t you?”

There was a long pause, and then Hannibal sounded more emotional than Will had ever heard him before. “Then he must have found it and left on his own. He might be headed your way. If you hear from him, then you will let me know immediately,” he demanded. 

Will opened his mouth again, but Mischa gave a small shake of her head, and Will looked at her in confusion. But he didn’t want to make her unhappy, since that was the opposite of his reason for being here, so he resolved to call Hannibal and tell him the truth later, unless Mischa could think of a damn good reason that he shouldn’t. 

He zoned out a bit for the rest of the abrupt conversation, and then Mischa hung up and gently put the phone back in its cradle. She turned to Will apologetically. “No matter what happens, you have to promise me that you won’t tell him you’re here, Will. If he knew, he would come all the way here just to kill me himself. You know that it’s true. I need you here with me, Will. Please.”

It felt like a great betrayal as Will agreed to Mischa’s request, and he wondered if his life could ever possibly be the same again. 

,,,

Will kept a close eye on Murasaki, even when she wasn’t in the same room as Mischa, and she could be overly pretentious and a bit too much like Hannibal for his taste at times, but he never got any indication of her being outright terrible. When Will tried to ask Mischa about it, she just said that Murasaki must have somehow detected his presence, and knew that he wouldn’t stand for any of that foul behavior. 

Three years passed by very slowly, and Will felt intimately aware of the passage of time in a way that he hadn’t when he’d been with Hannibal. He wasn’t going to complain, though, because keeping Mischa safe, happy, and healthy was his priority. Though of course, he couldn’t help thinking to himself that her high school classes were much less interesting than the university courses that Hannibal had been taking. 

But then Mischa turned eighteen, and everything Robert had left for her was officially hers, and her graduation was only a couple months away. His present for Mischa was a small leatherbound journal with a golden owl embossed across the cover, along with a nice fountain pen. She gave him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek once she’d tossed enough of the wrapping paper aside to see the gifts. 

Mischa had already been accepted into the university of her choice, which just so happened to be located in the States, in Maryland- though she’d still be living a little over an hour away from her brother. Will liked the idea, because it meant that he’d be able to spend time with both siblings, and he’d finally be able to apologize to Hannibal for ditching him the way that he had.

When he told Mischa about his excitement, though, she balled her hands into fists and gave him a sour look. “Will, you still can’t go back to him. Even if he was capable of forgiving us, he wouldn’t. He’d kill us both, you know that he would. And you can’t leave me!”

Will narrowed his eyes. “Why not? I’ve already stayed with you for far longer than I’ve ever stayed with any of my clients before, and I have made sure that you were safe and lived a good, normal life, and I know that we’ve had happy times together, but you don’t need me anymore.”

“I do!” Mischa insisted, and she lunged forward to grab Will’s arm and cling to it like they were glued together. “I need you way more than Hannibal does!”

Will tore his arm free and quickly stood up, looking down at Mischa with disappointment as he realized what was going on. “Hannibal warned me about you,” he said softly. “He said that you were just trying to manipulate me, but I couldn’t figure out why you would possibly do that. But I see it now. To you and Hannibal, I’m just some chew toy that you’re going to tug back and forth forever, both trying to claim ownership of me. Neither of you care about me, you just want to own me. Well I say enough! I am done with the both of you!” 

He stomped up to Mischa’s room, and looked around. He quickly searched his memories to figure out where she had put their contract, and then he walked over to her jewelry box. It was tempting to just knock it over and smash it up, but even in his anger he didn’t want to be destructive. He carefully peeled up the velvet lining of the box, and pulled out the folded up piece of paper. He slipped it into his pocket, and wondered why he didn’t feel different even though he was now the only person to own him. 

As he went back downstairs, he passed Murasaki, and he ignored her the same way that he usually did these days, but her eyes settled on him for the first time ever, and she let out a loud gasp. “Who the hell are you?” she snarled. “And what do you think you’re doing in my home?”

Will’s eyes widened in surprise, and he wasn’t sure what to do, so he just ran for it, and raced down the stairs and out the door. He’d never held his own contract before, not from any of his clients, and he hadn’t known that it would make him so… visible. He bumped into several people as he rushed down the sidewalk, and they all grumbled or glared at him. How the hell did humans live with always being seen? He stuck his hand into his pocket to feel the scrap of paper that was nestled innocently in there. What the hell was he supposed to do now?


	13. Chapter 13

Will, having primarily spent his time on Earth with young children, had not realized just how difficult it would be to obtain a job. Since he didn’t actually need to eat or sleep, he didn’t technically need to make enough money to have a place to live, but he thought that it would be nice to at least try having the full human experience, or at least as close as he could get to it.

When Will was rejected from yet another workplace because of his lack of resume or any of the paperwork that humans required to prove that they were who they said they were, Will wondered if he might be better off just calling it quits. With his contract in his possession, he could return to his supervisor, and explain the situation. Surely the higher-ups would be understanding of everything that had happened…?

No, that was just wishful thinking. His boss didn’t even understand why Will visited his clients in their dying moments, so how would he understand Will staying with someone he knew to be a murderer? And an adult at that? Sure, Will had technically been bound by his contract, but in the case of an absolute emergency, any imaginary friend could jet back to home base. Will could have done that at any time, and had simply chosen not to. So he was sure that all he’d have waiting for him back there was a lot of yelling, and maybe even a demotion. Honestly, now that he thought about it, it was actually a bit surprising that he hadn’t already been summoned back years ago.

But it was no use thinking about any of that now. At the moment, Will’s priority was figuring out how to make a living the way that humans did. Obviously he couldn’t go for anything that was considered a ‘professional field’, even if he did have the knowledge from sitting in on Hannibal’s classes and reading through Hannibal’s many books and textbooks when he got bored at night.

In the end, Will got an under-the-table job working on a boatyard, and at first he was just tasked with carrying tools and supplies to the boats, but he was a quick enough learner, and was soon trusted with more delicate engine work. It was easy to get lost in his own thoughts while working, and he rarely made any serious mistakes. He got along with the other guys on the dock, and found that it was a peaceful, if simple, life.

Since he didn’t need to eat, Will was able to save up pretty much all of his money, and find a cheap apartment that he could afford with his new wages. He thought of Hannibal’s cooking, and decided that there was no point in wasting money on food if it didn’t taste that good. And when he’d saved up a little bit more, he found the right people to buy forged documents off of. He became the owner of a new driver’s license, birth certificate, social security card, and a college degree. According to his new papers, his name was William Graham, son of Theo and Emily Graham. He hadn’t picked that last name, but he decided he liked the sound of it. Better than William Lecter, anyways. 

Will settled into his new life with more ease than he would have expected after years of being an imaginary friend. He had no idea how old he actually was, though according to his made up birthday he was thirty-one. He also took a bit of time to get used to the idea of talking to and befriending multiple people, since he was so used to only being able to communicate with his clients. But in the end, Will was a hard worker, and he was courteous to everyone, so he was a well-liked guy.

Since Will’s only real expense was rent, he was able to save up enough money after just a couple of years to be able to go ‘back’ to school, taking all kinds of classes until he decided that he was very interested in things relating to the law. Which was probably somewhat ironic, considering what he knew about Hannibal, and how he never made any anonymous calls to the police to report the unlawful behavior. 

Perhaps what was even more surprising than Will’s interest in the subject was the fact that he seemed to be pretty good at it. He used what he learned to get himself better papers so that there was even less chance of anyone catching on that they were all fake, and he felt proud of all his progress.

By the time he was ready to graduate, he’d already accepted a job offer to be a professor. He’d actually gotten a different offer from the FBI, but they were based in Virginia and that was too close to the Lecters for Will’s taste. Even after years of being away from them, he still found it difficult to stop thinking about them entirely, though he certainly did his best to try. 

The job that he did take turned out to be great for him. Most of his students were eager to learn, and Will found that it was fun to teach them. It made sense that he enjoyed it, since he’d spent almost all his life teaching children, and in many ways, adults were much easier students, even if the subjects were a bit more difficult. 

Will worked hard at his job, spent some time with his coworkers- though he never quite considered any of them to be his friends- and kept his head down to avoid any trouble. Sometimes, Will would forget himself, and forget that he was entirely visible to the world, but for the most part, he figured out how to fit in. Nobody else needed to know that he rarely ate and never slept (though a few of his peers had commented about being jealous of how well rested he always looked). 

As technology improved, Will knew that it would be easy enough to look up Hannibal and Mischa, to see where they were at with their lives. But he refrained from doing so, and told himself that he didn’t want to know anyways. Things were going well for him, and he didn’t want to lose what he’d been able to build for himself. He was free for the first time in his life, and he intended to take full advantage of that.

As more years passed him by, Will convinced his coworkers that he had great genes, which was why he still looked so young even though he was supposedly around fifty years old. Most people didn’t seem to question his age, though, and he never brought it up on his own. Will found that he was content with his life, and didn’t need to create problems for himself.

He wasn’t expecting a different kind of problem to haunt him. The head of Will’s department decided to retire, and a new one was brought in. Will was invited to the welcome party along with the others in his department, and he figured it would be nice to get out of the house for something a little different than usual.

It was a pretty big school, which meant that there was a sizeable number of faculty at the party, so Will found himself near the back of the crowd while the new guy was introduced. There was a lot of chatter from a group standing directly in front of Will, so he didn’t quite catch the new guy’s name.

Once the party got into full swing, Will grabbed a small plate to put a few things on just so that he wouldn’t be the only one walking around empty-handed, and then he made his way over to where the dean was currently talking to the new guy. Will cleared his throat, and held out one hand. “Hey. Will Graham.” 

The dean looked pleased to see Will initiating introductions without prompting, and he gave Will a hearty pat on the back. “Oh, Will is one of Westridge’s pride and joys. He recently published a monograph on time of death by insect activity, and we’re all sure it’s going to become a new standard in the field.” Then he turned to actually look at Will. “Will, this is Emerson Clarke, your new superior. You two should get to know each other! I’ll be right over there.” Then he hurried off without actually indicating where specifically ‘there’ was. 

Will had a ‘congratulations on your new position’ ready on his lips, but then he realized that Emerson Clarke was staring at him with wide, startled eyes, as though he was a ghost. “Will?” he asked quietly. “How-? Everyone can see you, so I might think I’m going crazy, but you look exactly the same as I remember you, from over forty-five years ago.”

Will ran the name through his memory, and tried to see if there was anything familiar at all about the features on Emerson’s face. There was nothing recognizable, at least in terms of looks, but after thinking about it, he finally made the connection. “Mars,” he gasped out suddenly. “You introduced yourself to me as Mars and that’s all I ever knew you by.” In hindsight, maybe it was a bit of a flaw that the client files never included names, though he understood why, since those names weren’t always the right match for the children. 

Emerson gasped as well, as though he hadn’t actually expected Will to confirm his identity like that. “It really is you. You’re really real.” He reached up to rub at his forehead, then gave Will a wane smile. “I hope you know how high up this ranks on my list of the most bizarre moments in my life.” He glanced around the room, but it was pretty clear that there were no children in attendance. “So is this what you do in between children? Are you even imaginary at all?”

Will shrugged one shoulder. “It’s complicated. So how have you been?” He listened to Emerson talk about his life, and the whole time, there was a strange feeling in the pit of Will’s stomach. Emerson had remembered him from the few months they’d been paired up, forty-five years ago. Would Mischa ever be able to forget him after the unprecedented amount of time he had spent with her? Would Hannibal?

Suddenly Will thought of Mischa’s contract, and reached into his pocket for it. But it wasn’t there, of course, because he hadn’t carried it around in quite a while. When he’d first started his new life, he had brought it around with him everywhere, constantly afraid of losing it, or that if he let it out of his sight he would lose ‘ownership’ of himself. He still had no idea where Hannibal had hidden the contract during his time of owning it. Would Hannibal remember him? 

Will was barely aware of excusing himself, and then rushing off. He drove back to his house like something of a madman, and ran up the stairs to get to his bedroom, where there was a safe hidden beneath his bed. He put in the combination with a shaking hand, and then withdrew the only item from the safe- the contract. 

Even though he knew that it was weird, he spent the night lying down with the contract laid out on the pillow next to his head, while he stared at the ceiling and planned his next steps. Technically Mischa had been the last one to have the contract before Will had confiscated it, so it should be returned to her, but if either of the Lecter siblings had been robbed, Will couldn’t help but think that it was Hannibal. 

As soon as it was an appropriate time the next morning, Will called into work and announced that he had to deal with a family emergency, and he was assured that he had plenty of vacation days stored up, though his students were sure to be disappointed. Will absent-mindedly thanked the secretary on the other end of the phone, then hung up.

He grabbed his suitcase and began shoving in his clothes. He didn’t really have anything else that was worth bringing. He called for a cab so that he wouldn’t have to pay to park his car, and before Will knew it, he was at the ticket counter in the airport. He knew it probably would have been cheaper to wait, and not get such a last minute flight, but Will was not in the mood to wait. He was afraid that if he tried, he would lose his nerve entirely. 

Will almost wished that he could fall asleep on the plane, if only so that the ride could go by quicker. Instead he was stuck on an agonizingly slow flight, sitting next to someone who seemed to have decided that Will was the perfect person to share all of their life story with, since he was something of a captive audience. 

The plane landed, Will hurried to grab his bag, and then went to the rental place next to the airport so that he could get a ride. It was so expensive, but Will was barely aware of the cost. It felt like it took forever to get through all of the paperwork, but then he was handed the keys, and Will was off, heading back to a city that he hadn’t seen in a very long time. 

At one point when he reached a red light, Will reached into his pocket to pat the contract, assuring himself that it was still there. It would be completely pointless if he had come all this way only to lose his very reason for doing so. He had waited over twenty years to return one silly little piece of paper, and he would be damned if he let anything get in his way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we have looped back around to the beginning, folks! I will be continuing forward from here, though I don't think I'll go on for too much longer. I wouldn't want this story to overstay its welcome xD
> 
> (Also, for anyone who isn't aware, after last chapter I did go back and make a few edits to the first chapter to make it match up a little better.)


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm very sorry to anyone who got the notification and/or read ch 14 when I originally put it up, but it had been brought to my attention that I hadn't given it the level of care and effort that it deserved, so I deleted and rewrote it entirely. Thank you for your patience with me!

Will stood around in a bit of a daze until Hannibal finally returned from wherever he’d gone to hide the contract. He took some vague mental notes of just how different the house looked now, but wasn’t able to focus on something as small as decor. Will still wasn’t even sure where Hannibal had kept the contract the first time around, or how Mischa had found it. But it didn’t matter anymore, since Will had no plans to steal the paper back. He’d made his decision, and he was going to stick with it. 

Something Will hadn’t foreseen, though, was the awkward air between him and Hannibal as they stared at each other, each waiting for the other to speak first. Well, since Will had been the one to come back, it seemed like that meant it was his job to try and bridge the gap that had been built between them over the past couple of decades of being apart. “So, uh, how have you been? Mischa mentioned that you went into…” he trailed off when he saw the tense look on Hannibal’s face. Even after all these years, Will found that it was still pretty easy to read Hannibal when he wanted to. 

“Why did you leave?”

Will gulped. He’d known that the question would come up sooner or later, but he hadn’t anticipated it being quite so soon. He’d already promised Mischa that he wouldn’t share her involvement in his story, but he hadn’t exactly taken the time to think up any particularly clever lies when he’d rushed back to Baltimore. “I need a drink for this conversation. Maybe a few.”

He could feel Hannibal’s gaze burning on his back as he made his way to the sitting room. The liquor cabinet was on the opposite wall from where Will remembered, and the bookcases were completely full where before they had only held so many books. The liquor cabinet was also fuller, and even though Will wasn’t an expert, he could tell immediately that Hannibal only stocked up on the best alcohol that money could buy. Clearly being a psychiatrist was working out well for Hannibal.

Will crouched down to get a better look at the choices, and then noticed a slightly dusty bottle towards the back of the cabinet. He pulled it out, and saw some of the cheap whiskey that he’d enjoyed often enough in the past. From the looks of it, the bottle had been sitting there since Will had left. It made sense, since it was hard to imagine Hannibal willingly drinking any. 

But he still poured into two glasses, and then turned to hold one out to Hannibal. He tried not to flinch and splash any whiskey out of the glasses when he found Hannibal standing directly in front of him, even though he hadn’t heard the man take a single step. There was barely enough room between their chests for Will to even hold up the glass. He cleared his throat. “I thought you might need a drink for this conversation too.”

There was a very long pause as Hannibal and Will just stared at each other, and then Hannibal finally accepted the glass, though not without first brushing his fingers against Will’s in a way that had to be intentional. Hannibal kept staring at Will, with eyes that looked redder than Will remembered, and there was a strange intensity in the gaze that left Will wondering if maybe he didn’t know Hannibal as well as he thought he did. “How considerate,” Hannibal murmured before finally stepped back and heading over to the couch to sit down. 

Will blinked a few times before he walked over to sit down in the chair across from the couch. He didn’t think that it would be a good idea to sit right next to Hannibal, not with the way he felt like he could still feel the impression of Hannibal’s lips on his. That kiss had been a heat of the moment thing, and while Will had certainly enjoyed it, he knew that he and Hannibal had a lot to talk about before they could even consider going back to such enjoyable activities.

Will took a long gulp from his glass, and then held it down on his lap, trying not to fidget. He’d been a professor for many years now, and suddenly wondered if this was how his students felt when they were put on the spot. Hannibal kept staring at him, not taking a single sip, his earlier question still ringing in the air. “Hannibal, I want to tell you why I left. But truthfully, I’m not sure that it really matters. I was gone, and you felt betrayed or lonely or whatever; isn’t it more important to talk about that stuff?”

Hannibal tilted his head to the side, looking almost like he was curious. “You don’t think your motivation matters?”

Maybe Will should have returned before Hannibal took psych 101. But no, he was here now, and he didn’t want that to change. He straightened up in his seat, and met Hannibal’s eyes. “I thought that we’d already covered enough of this topic out in the hallway, but I’ll tell you again. I left because I was tired of you being so possessive. It didn’t even make sense, considering that you’re the only one who could even see me. It- it made me feel like you didn’t really care about me. Like you only cared about keeping what you saw as being yours.” Will was somewhat surprised to realize that even without mentioning Mischa, he was able to tell Hannibal the truth. “You were not a good friend, and I felt stifled around you. Never being allowed to stray too far, never being-” he cut himself off to take a deep breath in and out, not wanting to sound anything less than entirely composed. “What happened to Winston?” he asked suddenly. He hadn’t thought about that dog in years, but he had never been able to bring himself to get a new pet in his new life.

If Hannibal was thrown off by the abrupt change in topic, he didn’t make any indication of it. “He lived with me for many years, but eventually I became too busy to give him the care he needed, so I gave him to a friend of mine. I believe he died about six years ago after a long and happy life.”

A rush of relief ran through Will. When he’d taken his contract and decided to head out on his own, he hadn’t fully realized everything he would be giving up, but in the two years he’d spent with Mischa, he had gotten over the hurt of losing Winston, which made it too easy for him to forget about the dog once he was on his own. Maybe he should have come back for Winston, but something told him that he would never have been able to leave this house again if he had snuck back in. “That’s- good. I’m glad. He was a good boy.”

“Yes,” Hannibal answered in a slow voice, which seemed to be something he’d picked up in the past couple of decades. “They say that often times owners begin to resemble their pets, though you can rest assured that that is not true.” 

Will bit his lip to avoid snapping anything he would probably regret later. He’d come back to make up with Hannibal, not to start a fight. “So maybe this is the kind of thing I should have asked before knowingly binding myself to you for probably the rest of your life, but I have to know… have you continued with your ‘extracurriculars’ all this time?”

Hannibal gave Will a searching look that seemed like it was trying to probe right into his soul, and then he relaxed back into his seat. “How long have you known?” he asked instead of giving a direct answer. 

“I don’t know if you remember, but there was a day when I slipped down the stairs, a few months into our living arrangement I think. That night I went to get some water from the kitchen and I saw the open pantry so I went inside and saw you in the middle of your stuff. I didn’t realize you were eating them until later, but by then I’d already resolved to try and help you. I thought I could fix you.” He let out a bitter sounding laugh. “Good thing only one of us went into the field of psychiatry, right?” 

There was a brief moment of silence before Hannibal responded. “You knew for so long, and you never let on. Either I’m less clever than I’ve always believed, or you’re more clever than I ever gave you credit for.” Will wasn’t sure how to respond to that, if there was any response required, so he just remained silent. After a few very long seconds, Hannibal spoke again. “What did you do while you were gone? Did you make contracts with new children who needed you?”

Will shook his head. “No. I can only make contracts with my clients, who can only be assigned to me by my boss- who I haven’t even checked in with for about thirty years now. I’d probably be fired or demoted if I even tried at this point. No, I’ve been living a pretty ordinary life. I got a couple of degrees and a teaching job.” He could see the way that confusion marred Hannibal’s otherwise… nice looking features, so he elaborated. “I had no idea what would happen when I took control of my own contract. Such a thing has never been done before, at least not that I can remember. What it did was make it so that I would be a visible, audible presence in the world, just like any other person.” Even though Hannibal didn’t say anything, Will could practically hear the man’s thoughts. He wondered if Will could still be entirely his when hundreds or thousands of people had been able to see and hear him. “I chose to come back,” he reminded Hannibal with no small amount of irritation in his tone. “Anyways, I’m not sure how you having the contract again will affect things, but I know that my other clients could still see me even after their contract with me was up, so hopefully it will work the same when I’m the one who no longer has the contract. I was actually originally offered a job at Quantico, so it would be a bit of a commute, but if you just-”

“No.”

Will blinked a couple of times, and then frowned at Hannibal. “What?”

There was a new coldness in Hannibal’s voice when he answered. “I made it quite clear that a condition of your return is that you are not allowed to leave again, and you agreed. So that is the end of that.”

Will chugged down the rest of his whiskey and then slammed the glass down on the coffee table with more force than necessary. It took a lot of effort to not clench his teeth together as he spoke. “I’m not trying to leave you, I would still come back after work and be here on the weekends, just like any other working professional. It’s not like I can do anything productive if you make me sit in on your therapy sessions.”

But it was clear that Hannibal was not in the mood to be swayed. “I believe we’ve done enough catching up for the day. We will talk again tomorrow, though not on this matter.” Then he got up, leaving behind his untouched glass on the coffee table with a pointedly gentle motion. Will ground his teeth together, and wondered if Hannibal had become more of an ass in their time apart, or if Will had just managed to forget about exactly who Hannibal Lecter was.


	15. Chapter 15

Will didn’t need to sleep, but he had gotten into the habit of lying down and closing his eyes for a few hours every night, and he found that it was always a good opportunity for him to get a little bit of extra rest. But he was never actually asleep, no matter how it might appear to anyone who glanced in on him, which is how he was perfectly capable of hearing the loud shouts that came from somewhere downstairs.

Honestly, whatever Hannibal had gotten himself into was really none of Will’s problem. He was still annoyed about Hannibal’s blatant refusal to even consider the idea of expanding Will’s barriers, and neither of them had spoken a single word to each other since the end of that conversation.

But Will also had no idea what would happen to him if Hannibal were to die tonight, so he reluctantly dragged himself up to his feet and left his room. (He wasn’t going to think about the fact that he’d probably be upset if Hannibal died, despite the fact that they hadn’t even come close to clearing the air between them yet). 

When he got downstairs, though, Will relaxed as he saw that the situation was clearly under control as Hannibal carried a squirming man through the hall, towards the kitchen. Obviously he planned on taking the man down to the hidden section of the basement. 

The captive spotted Will, and immediately began shouting again, though his words were muffled by the cloth that had been tied in a tight knot around his mouth. Hannibal turned to look at Will, and paused for just a moment. There was a clear predatory look in his eyes that almost scared Will, but then the look was gone, replaced with one of Hannibal’s usual pleasant smiles. “Ah, Will. I’m terribly sorry to have woken you up.” He spoke in the casual tone of a man who was not in the middle of kidnapping someone in order to butcher and eat them. Will found that he was grateful for Hannibal’s calmness. If Hannibal started to panic now, then Will might panic too. 

“I don’t sleep.” He wasn’t sure if that was something that Hannibal had already known about him or not, but he figured that it couldn’t hurt to provide a reminder of the fact. 

Hannibal nodded once. “I see.” They both just stood there for a moment, and even though it shouldn’t have been so awkward between them, there was no way to deny that it was awkward. Or maybe it was supposed to be awkward between them. Will wasn’t exactly an expert on socializing, even after all his years living like a mostly normal person. And Hannibal certainly wasn’t an expert on socializing, when most of his social interactions were just so fake. 

After another few seconds passed, Will cleared his throat. “I’m going to head back to bed. Unless- unless you need anything?” His voice rose to an unnatural pitch for him as he rushed to ask the question. Hannibal’s whole face seemed to sharpen, and Will immediately rushed to backtrack. “I don’t mean with- I still think that what you’re doing is still extremely ethically wrong, not to mention entirely illegal! I just meant- hell, I don’t know what I meant.”

But that look on Hannibal’s face didn’t fade away. “I would be overjoyed to have your help someday, Will. Not until you’re ready, though. For now, you should head back to bed. I will endeavor to make less noise.”

It’s not exactly like Hannibal had been the one making all the noise, but Will knew better than to argue. “Yeah. Sure. Thanks.” He started back up the stairs, though once he was halfway up he stopped and glanced back. He was startled to see that Hannibal was still watching him, and he fought to keep himself from going red in the face. He quickly hurried the rest of the way up the stairs, and back into his room. 

As he flopped down onto the bed, he didn’t feel like closing his eyes and pretending to sleep, so he propped himself up on his elbows, and looked around the room. The bedding was different, but other than that, pretty much everything in the room looked the same as Will remembered from so long ago. Why hadn’t Hannibal changed the room? Moved the furniture around? Got rid of Will’s books? Why had he let it all remain the same as before?

,,,

Will looked down at his plate hesitantly as Hannibal sat down across from him at the table. He glanced up at Hannibal, and then back down at his plate, where the prominent part of the dish was delicious looking sausages. He didn’t eat any, just looked back up at Hannibal. “I haven’t eaten very often in the past couple decades. Seemed like a waste of money since I don’t actually need food to survive. Figured that there was no point in spending money or effort on food unless it was good stuff.”

When he didn’t say anything else, Hannibal set down his glass of juice after taking a long sip, and tilted his head. “Is there a reason that you’re sharing this with me?”

Will sighed, and looked down at the cloth napkin that he’d already set down on his lap. “Is this food worth the time it takes to eat it? Or to make it?”

He knew that Hannibal would easily understand what he was really being asked. There was a moment of silence, and then Hannibal nodded once. “I have been told that I am quite an accomplished chef these days. I don’t know what you recall of my cooking talents, but I have greatly improved over the years. I have given myself many opportunities to practice.”

Will gulped, and looked back down at the plate again, eyes zeroing in on the sausage. How many people had Hannibal killed after Will had left? How damn selfish had he really been to just up and leave without figuring out how to stop Hannibal from continuing with his murderous activities?

And more importantly, where on a moral spectrum was eating human meat? It clearly wasn’t necessary in this situation, and Will could easily continue living without such a thing, as could Hannibal. But he knew that Hannibal probably didn’t even view it as cannibalism. Probably thought that he was so far above the people he killed that they were not even the same species. And Will looked like a human being, but he technically was not, so he didn’t think that it would count as cannibalism for him (though really, who was to say for sure?) But even so, he didn’t think that Hannibal was out killing people for the betterment of the world. Those sausages had been innocent of anything other than a perceived slight against Hannibal, or maybe even just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Of course, Will had knowingly consumed Hannibal’s kills before, but it felt so different now that Will had actually spent so many years living as a human, for all intents and purposes. He thought of the many colleagues he had, and the students who seemed to enjoy his class. How would Will feel if one of them wound up on his plate? 

Will could feel Hannibal’s eyes on him, and he forced himself to look up at the man again. He watched as Hannibal slowly cut into his own sausages, and then reached up with his fork to place a piece in his mouth. He closed his eyes for a moment, clearly enjoying the taste of his cooking. 

When he opened his eyes again, it felt like his gaze was trying to burn a hole right through Will. “Please, eat before it gets cold.”

They both stared at each other for a very long moment, and then Will finally reached out and snatched up a sausage with his fingers, taking pleasure in the look of displeasure on Hannibal’s face, and took a big bite. It was definitely the best sausage he’d ever tasted (not that that was really saying much, considering how often Will actually ate in his lifetime). “It’s alright,” he allowed. “I’ve had better.”

“Then I shall work to improve,” Hannibal murmured in a dangerously quiet voice. “Perhaps in the future you could join me in the kitchen so that we could learn together how to make something better.” They both knew that Hannibal’s cooking was already at a much higher level than that of many professional chefs, but Will was glad if he had offended. It seemed like the least Hannibal deserved after everything.

They finished breakfast in silence, and then they headed into the kitchen to clean up together, still in silence. Hannibal scrubbed at the dishes, and then handed them to Will to dry them. Will was tempted to just throw the dishes down onto the ground to smash them into pieces, but he felt like that might be too petty, even considering the circumstances.

Once everything was dried and put away, Hannibal glanced down at his watch rather pointedly before looking up at Will. “I have some early morning appointments that I must get to. Are you ready to head out?”

Will narrowed his eyes. “You could just let me stay here, you know. I really don’t think that there’s any point in making me go with you. Besides, wouldn’t that be breaking some kind of doctor-patient confidentiality thing, whether they end up being able to see me or not?”

“You can wait in the waiting room while I am with my patients, then.”

Will clenched his jaw. “That’s not even close to what I meant, and you know it. Come on, Hannibal. I know I chose to come back here, but I didn’t think that it would mean being your personal prisoner for all of eternity. Maybe you can’t really understand this because you haven’t seen it for yourself, but I’m a person, Hannibal. A person with a life, and things that I care about, and dreams that I want to fulfill. None of which I can do if I’m chained to your side.”

He stared at Hannibal with wide eyes, hoping that all of his emotions were shining through so that maybe Hannibal would actually be able to understand for once. But of course Will should have never expected understanding from a murderer. All he got instead was a hard look and a cold tone. “We’re leaving in five minutes, Will.” 

Will wanted to rant and rage and storm around the house causing as much chaos and destruction as he could. But in the end, what good would that do? And besides, the one he was really angry with was himself. He was the one who’d given himself to Hannibal without even thinking to talk about things first. Of course he blamed Hannibal for being utterly immovable in his ways, but he knew that he also needed to take at least some responsibility for leaping without looking.


	16. Chapter 16

Will considered just stomping up the stairs and slamming his door shut, petulantly waiting in his room for the moment that he would be forced back to Hannibal’s side because of the limitation in distance between them. Then he decided that that would be giving Hannibal too much control over the situation, and Will would much prefer to go out on his own terms.

So instead he stomped outside, and then paused at the sight of the two cars parked in the driveway. Well, he could always just drive separately from Hannibal, though if they were suddenly separated just a little bit too much, there would be a driverless car and it could potentially cause a serious accident. Will wasn’t going to risk innocent lives just because he didn’t want to spend time with Hannibal at the moment.

He got into the backseat of the car, slamming the door shut as hard as he could behind him, and hoping that it would cause some damage. Hannibal locked the front door to the house, then came out and got into the driver’s seat. “Perhaps you would be more comfortable sitting up front, Will?”

“I think I’d be more comfortable not getting dragged along at your whim, but clearly you don’t care about what would make me comfortable.” He lay back with his feet flat on the seat and his knees bent in the air, hoping to leave footprints behind on Hannibal’s seats. He didn’t bother with a seatbelt, and crossed his arms over his chest as he stared up at the roof of the ceiling. 

After a few minutes of driving, the car lurched to a stop, and Will rolled off of the seat. “Terribly sorry about that. It was a rather sudden red light,” Hannibal said in such a mild tone that Will immediately knew it was utter bullshit. 

Will scoffed and rolled his eyes as he got back onto the seat, into the same position as before, just because he could. “You know I’m still a physical being that could go right through your windshield, right? How are you going to explain that one to your insurance company?” Hannibal didn’t bother to reply, but it was a fairly smooth ride the rest of the way to Hannibal’s office.

Will had never been here before, since Hannibal obviously hadn’t had a fancy practice back when he was still in university. They stopped in a nice looking waiting room, though there was no one behind the desk. He raised his eyebrows, and Hannibal gave Will a small smile. “My secretary was predispositioned to romantic whims. Followed her heart to the United Kingdom. Sad to see her go.”

Will narrowed his eyes at the tone of Hannibal’s voice. “Right…” Surely Hannibal was smart enough not to kill anyone who could be directly connected back to him, right? “So am I just supposed to wait out here, then?”

A door opened behind them, and then there was a soft female voice. “Dr. Lecter, am I too early?”

Hannibal and Will both turned, and Hannibal immediately offered up a smugly charming grin. “Of course not, Mrs. Reguese. You are just on time, as always. I’m afraid that I am the one who was running uncharacteristically late today. Unavoidable incidents, as I’m sure you’re aware.”

The woman’s eyes darted to Will for a moment before going back to Hannibal, and she relaxed her stance. “Oh yes, quite aware.” Then she strode forward and held out one hand to Will. “Good morning. It is a pleasure to make acquaintance with any friend of Hannibal’s.”

Will blinked once, feeling like an idiot as he realized that Hannibal’s victim last night had been able to see him as well. Well, that answered that question, then. Even with Will no longer holding his contract, everyone in the world could still see him. Hopefully that would make it easier to convince Hannibal to give him what he wanted, since otherwise it might look as though he was holding someone hostage in his house, which would surely ruin Hannibal’s precious reputation. 

Then Will realized that he was just standing there like an idiot, and he accepted the handshake. “Ah, right, yes. Will Graham.” He felt Hannibal’s eyes practically burning through him, and then realized that he hadn’t even told Hannibal his new last name yet. “Pleased to meet you,” he tacked on as he tried to remember the social niceties that his boss had tried to instill in him ever since he got his professor job. 

If the woman thought there was anything strange about the interaction, she didn’t say so. “Amelia Reguese. But you can just call me Mel, dear. All of my good friends do.”

Will could practically feel it as the intensity in Hannibal’s gaze increased, and he quickly pulled his hand away from the woman. He’d rather seem rude to her than have her end up dead because Hannibal was a jealous freak. Still, there was something pleasing in the knowledge that Hannibal could never truly have Will all to himself again, not now that anyone who looked could see him standing there. 

He watched as Hannibal escorted his patient into the office, which Will would probably take the chance to look around while Hannibal was in-between appointments. For now, he resigned himself to being utterly bored as he slumped down into one of the surprisingly comfy chairs that lined the walls. 

Will ended up staring off into the distance, thinking about how much stuff he’d have to grade if he were to return to his university. But considering Hannibal didn’t even want to let Will be in a separate building in the same city, he doubted that he’d ever be allowed to travel several states over, even if it was just for a quick visit.

As he sat there, Will was somewhat startled by a sudden low buzzing noise, until he realized that it was coming from his pocket. He fished out his phone and grimaced slightly when he saw the caller ID. He answered anyways, though, because the last thing he needed was a well-intentioned colleague launching a manhunt to find Will. “Hey Rob.”

“Really? That’s all you have to say to me after you just cut and ran like your back was on fire? I assumed that you must’ve called out sick yesterday, and when you weren’t here when I came in this morning either, I thought it must be pretty bad, so I swung by your place with some of my famous soul-healing chicken soup, only to find nobody there, and all your clothes were gone. So I asked around and someone said that you had a family emergency or something. You had a family emergency that required you to take off and somehow it never even occurred to you to send me a single text saying ‘bye’? I’m your best friend, Will!”

Will winced and looked over at Hannibal’s office door, as if afraid that Hannibal was going to burst through angrily and reveal that he had super hearing, and then declare that Will wasn’t allowed to have a best friend, or something. “I’m sorry, but look, everything just happened so quickly, and I couldn’t keep my head on straight. You know how I am.”

Rob sighed on the other end. “So is everything going to be okay with you? Do you need someone with you? What’s the actual emergency, if you don’t mind my asking?”

Will hadn’t actually stopped to consider what kind of excuse he might give, considering he hadn’t really thought that far ahead when he’d packed his things and left. Maybe some part of him had actually hoped that he’d lose the ability to be seen and heard, if only because it would make it so much easier to just separate himself from the life he’d been living for over twenty years now. 

He took a moment to think, not wanting to lie to a friend (Will wasn’t sure he’d go so far as to say best friend, though. How could he when the other man didn’t even know anything about who Will really was?), while also clearly unable to come even close to explaining the truth. ‘Yes, so as it turns out, I’m an imaginary friend instead of a real person, and one of my former charges gave me to her older brother, who is a possessive bastard and also a serial killer, but I thought it would be nice to see him again.’ Because that would go over so well. “It’s complicated,” he finally settled on saying, even though he knew that that was one of the worst things to say in any situation ever.

“You know that you can talk to me about anything, right? If it wasn’t for you I don’t know how I would have ever survived my divorce. You really saved my life, and the least I can do in return is give you a listening ear.”

The fact that Will hadn’t even given Rob a single thought in the past few days was probably pretty good evidence that Will was a shitty friend, but even so, he couldn’t help but smile at how good of one Rob was. “Thanks, I really do appreciate it. I’m just not ready to talk about it yet, you know?”

“Yeah, I get it. So when do you think you’ll be coming back?”

Will could hear the sound of the door to Hannibal’s office opening, and he resisted the urge to panic. “Not sure yet. Might be a while. Things are… complicated.” He glanced at where Hannibal was standing in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest as he stared at Will with obvious displeasure. “Look, I’ve gotta go now, but it was really good to hear from you.”

“You better not forget about me again,” Rob grumbled. 

Will laughed. “I won’t, I promise. I’ll talk to you later, alright?” Then he hung up and slipped the phone back into his pocket. He stretched his arms up over his head, and then leaned back in the seat casually, like he hadn’t just done something that probably pissed Hannibal off. “Did you have a good appointment? Feel ready to face all your problems now?”

“Perhaps you are unaware, but I am the psychiatrist in this scenario,” Hannibal said dryly. “Who were you just speaking with?”

Will very badly hid his grin as he shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t think that’s any of your business. But if you really want to know, let’s just say that finding out I can still chat with my old friends does come with some benefits.” 

He wondered if Hannibal was going to grab his arm and drag him back to the house, but another patient showed up before Hannibal could say or do anything, and Will watched with begrudging awe as Hannibal was immediately able to shove all that he was behind an innocent mask. “Ah, Franklyn, good morning. You’re a bit early, aren’t you?”

Will glanced at the patient, and immediately decided that the man was not a threat in any way. “Yes, I was just so excited to come here, Dr. Lecter. I wanted to talk to you about…” he trailed off as he seemed to notice Will for the first time. “Oh, uh, hello. Are you one of Dr. Lecter’s patients too?” 

Will blinked once, then shook his head. “Nah, just a peer. Will Graham.” He held his hand out, as he knew that it was the polite thing to do, and Franklyn just stared at him for a very long minute before finally accepting the handshake. He kept his grip weak and loose, and it was so obvious to anyone with eyes that Franklyn was prey in a world of predators, and even though Will still hoped Hannibal wouldn’t be foolish enough to kill anyone close to him, especially not patients, Will decided to keep an eye on the man anyways, just in case. 

He almost laughed out loud at the look of resignation on Hannibal’s face as he led Franklyn into the office. He’d been left with no choice, because it had either been taking Franklyn in early, or leaving him out in the waiting room to chat with Will. Still, it’s not as though Hannibal could keep Will from the world forever. Will was a patient guy, and eventually he’d be able to wear down the man’s defenses.


	17. Chapter 17

The day seemed to stretch on forever, and Will’s only entertainment throughout was the brief introductions he got with each of Hannibal’s scheduled patients. They were all so different and interesting, but with each one, Hannibal was quick to usher them into his office, even though it meant having to see them earlier than planned. 

He played around on his phone for a little while, but that quickly grew boring as well, and Will just sat around. Once Hannibal had gotten rid of his last patient for the night, Will had eagerly jumped up and walked into Hannibal’s office. Maybe this was all part of some master plan to make Will so eager to see Hannibal just to have something interesting to do that he would forget about all the grievances between them. If so, it was really only a few more days of this torture away from working. 

The drive home passed in silence, with Will sitting in the front seat like the mature adult that he was. Once they stepped inside Hannibal’s house, Will immediately turned on Hannibal. “I am going to shrivel up and die if I have to deal with even one more day of that. You have to let me do something else, anything! What’s the worst that can happen if you just let me get a job and have even the slightest bit of mental stimulation?”

Hannibal gave Will a cross look that he tried to disguise as something else. “You promised-”

“Yeah, I get it, I promised that I wouldn’t leave you again and I’m all yours, but honestly Hannibal this thing that’s between us has to have compromise on both sides. I don’t want to leave you again, but do you really think that it’s healthy and fulfilling for me to be stuck with you all the time? We need to spend time apart, especially while we’re still getting to know each other again. And I know that you probably don’t need any money from me, but I am just going to feel like a completely useless idiot if I’m just sitting around all day without contributing anything.”

They both stared at each other for several very long, very intense seconds. “Will, I am more than capable of providing for both of us, and I enjoy the idea of doing so.”

Will reached out to grab both of Hannibal’s shoulders, as if he could somehow shake some sense into the man. “That’s so far from the point that it’s not even in the same state, Hannibal! Much like I’m going to be if you keep acting like this!”

That immediately triggered a response in Hannibal to look at Will with cold, hardened eyes. “You promised-”

“I’m not trying to leave you, you idiot! I’m just trying to have even the slightest bit of independence! I am a person, Hannibal! I am a person!” Then he dropped his arms abruptly, feeling more disappointed in Hannibal than he cared to explain. He knew that it shouldn’t matter, because he and Hannibal had not seen each other in a very long time. Of course they weren’t going to be able to take one look at each other and instantly become the men of their memories. But still, Will couldn’t stop the disappointment from welling up. He paused at the base of the stairs to speak again, though he refused to look at Hannibal as he did so. “And don’t you dare even think of buying me a dog to try and fix this.” Then he stomped up the stairs, not caring how petty it seemed.

,,,

Will rolled over onto his side the moment he heard his bedroom door open, and he saw Hannibal standing in the doorway. He sighed and sat up, crossing his arms over his chest. “What do you want?”

Hannibal didn’t make any move to actually enter the room, but even with the distance between them Will could see something close to desperation on the man’s face, even as he tried to hide it. “Would a job really mean that much to you?”

Will nodded firmly. “Yes. I need to have something to do, and what I do, teaching, it feels important. And if that job at Quantico is too far away, I’m sure that there are closer campuses that would take me on at least part time. I just- I just need to be able to do this, Hannibal. It’s something that’s all mine, never about you. I’d be able to keep regular hours, and I could do all my grading and lesson prep from here, and if I was ever going to be running late, I could just call you.” He got to his feet and crossed part of the distance between him and Hannibal. “I know it probably doesn’t seem like much to you, but I didn’t even know if I’d still be visible once you took the contract back, and I am, and finding that out made it really hit me that I’m still a part of the world, Hannibal. I can’t just forget about what it’s like to be a part of something.” 

There was a very long moment of silence before Hannibal spoke again, in a very soft voice as if that would change the conversation. “And if I were to give you this, what would you give me in return?”

Will frowned, not having considered the possibility of such a question. “What do you want from me, Hannibal?” That seemed like the real question that he should have asked right from the beginning. Or maybe he had and it had just never been answered; it was too hard to remember by now.

Hannibal’s eyes gleamed suddenly, like Will had just said the exact right thing to cheer him up. “I want you, Will. I want to know that even if you are a part of the world, I will never have to share you with anyone. Ever. Of course I’m sure that my sister will still want to see you, but you will only be mine.” 

Will gulped, and tried to resist the urge to get too excited. He knew better than to make a deal when he didn’t know all of the details. “And what exactly do you mean by ‘yours’? What would that require of me?”

Hannibal crossed the remaining space between them, entering Will’s room as if it was his right to do so, and he loomed over Will in a way that should have felt much more menacing than it did. “I think you know exactly what I mean.”

Will gulped, and resisted the urge to take a step back. “You need to say the words, Hannibal, or I won’t know what you mean.” 

There was a pause, and then Hannibal politely asked, or maybe demanded, “Have dinner with me.”

Will blinked a couple of times. “I always do,” he said warily.

That earned him a shake of Hannibal’s head in response. “Somewhere else. I will dress you up in nice clothes, and we will see a show together, and then go to dinner at a place with inevitably inferior cooking, and then we will return here and-”

“And?” 

Hannibal gave Will a cheeky grin. “And perhaps we will indulge in some dessert.”

So maybe Hannibal would only ever speak in his metaphors, but at least they seemed to have improved somewhat since the last time he’d been spouting them like the nonsense they were. Will took a moment to think. He’d have some level of freedom and agency and a job, and in exchange he’d be Hannibal’s. He had the feeling that there was still a lot left to be worked out between the two of them, a lot of feelings that needed to be shared, but until then, what harm could it do to have a little bit of dessert with Hannibal? It was something he had never even thought about until that passionate 'welcome home' kiss, but he couldn't deny that ever since that moment, his eyes had been opened to the possibilities, and really, it didn't seem like much of a sacrifice at all.


	18. Chapter 18

Maybe Will could be seen by the rest of the world now, but Hannibal knew that everyone would understand how off-limits Will was. Will hadn’t looked in the mirror yet, though Hannibal was sure he’d hear about it the moment it happened. Sure enough, not even a minute later Will burst into Hannibal’s room, pointing up at his own throat, where there was a dark bruise clearly above the line of where his shirt collar would be. “What the hell is this? You know that it’s my job interview today, Hannibal.”

Hannibal remained where he was, lying naked in bed, though he did stretch out, letting the sheets strategically fall lower. “Oh believe me, Will, I am well aware of that fact.”

Will’s face turned red, and he stomped around Hannibal’s room for another few minutes before leaving to get dressed. He had a longer commute than Hannibal and needed to get in earlier, so unfortunately Hannibal could not give Will rides back and forth. Instead, he would have to drive out on his own, and Hannibal didn’t want Will to forget for even a moment who he belonged to. 

In the end, Will took one of Hannibal’s scarves without asking while Hannibal was in the shower, and wrapped it high enough to cover the hickey. “I’ll see you tonight,” he grumbled before stomping out of the house. 

As soon as he’d been given the interview, Will had called his old job to explain the situation, though Hannibal was sure that he left out any mention of being an imaginary friend. He’d been in a fairly good mood when he’d gotten off the phone, so Hannibal assumed that whatever conversation had happened, it was one that went well. 

Hannibal still had some time before he needed to head to his office for the day, but he couldn’t help thinking that his house seemed strangely quiet, and decided to go out early. There was a new bakery that had just opened a couple of weeks ago, and Hannibal thought that it was as good a time as any to try them out. Before he left, he made sure to take the sticky note Will had left him with the name and phone number of his potential future employer.

The day passed by the same as always, and Hannibal had to resist the urge to snap at several different patients when they said terribly stupid things. For a moment he imagined how it would go if he tried to give Will therapy. He was sure that it would be interesting at the very least. 

When he got home at the end of the day, Will’s car was in the driveway, and Will’s jacket was on the floor in the front hall, clearly having fallen off of the coat rack. Hannibal started to head to the kitchen, but he paused when he saw Will sitting in Hannibal’s office. He was putting something onto the bookshelf as Hannibal peered into the room. “How did the interview go?”

Will turned around with the very casual manner of a person who’d known that Hannibal was coming. He shrugged one shoulder. “Well, you know me. Just about able to charm anyone.”

Hannibal smiled as he stepped into the room, and slowly moved into Will’s space. “Well, you certainly succeeded in charming me.” He reached up to touch the hickey, and wondered if he’d get away with leaving a new one everyday. 

Will seemed to know what Hannibal was thinking, because he swatted Hannibal’s hand away. “Do you know how many strange looks I got for wearing a scarf all day in the middle of the summer? Thank goodness the FBI doesn’t hire based on fashion sense. And if I do get this job, I’m going to be standing in front of a classroom of impressionable children everyday, and I do not want them having any reason to get distracted, or to not have faith in my professionalism.”

“Impressionable children?” Hannibal asked as he arched one eyebrow. “Are they not all adults who have already been through undergraduate school?”

One corner of Will’s mouth rose up in a smirk. “Yeah. Like I said, impressionable children.” Then he slipped out of Hannibal’s reach, and moved to lean against Hannibal’s desk. “In all seriousness, though, I think things went pretty well. And of course it helps that they had wanted to hire me right out of school, and that my old boss sent in a letter of recommendation for me.”

Hannibal paused in his pursuit of Will so that he could tilt his head. “You only spoke with him a few days ago. He was able to get you a letter so quickly?”

There was a sheepish expression on Will’s face as he shrugged again. “Well, I may have asked him for a letter sooner than that. I knew I’d be able to bring you around.”

Hannibal moved forward until Will was leaning backwards over the desk, and Hannibal was standing in between his legs. “Is that so?” he breathed. “Well then I must make sure that I get my money’s worth from my end of the deal.”

The mischievous grin on Will’s face made Hannibal’s stomach twist in a way that he had never felt before, and perhaps he would even find it to be frightening if it was caused by anyone but Will. “I think you may have made a bad deal, Hannibal. Because I seem to be gaining some small amount of enjoyment from your end of it.”

“Only some?” Hannibal asked mildly, even as he reached forward to start unbuttoning Will’s shirt. “Then I clearly haven’t been doing good enough.” Hannibal didn’t think he would ever grow tired of reminding Will that he was Hannibal’s.  
,,,

Will was making fishing lures of all things, at the heavy table he’d dragged into Hannibal’s office so that they could both do quiet work in the same room. Hannibal had not been entirely pleased by the scuffed up looking table, but Will seemed to like it, though Will seemed to like even more that it did not go with the rest of the room at all. 

Hannibal was looking through his patient notes to review everything he’d need to go over tomorrow. He wrote in a simple code that he had invented, but he was pretty sure that Will had already cracked that code. Maybe Hannibal should change things up to preserve doctor-patient confidentiality, but Will gained nothing from the notes in Hannibal’s many notebooks, and there was nothing too interesting in most of the notes anyways.

As they both worked, there was a knock on the front door. Hannibal glanced at Will, who just gave a noncommittal grunt as he continued to work on his lure, and Hannibal brushed his hand over the back of Will’s neck when he passed by him to head to the front door and see who had rudely showed up unannounced. 

He couldn’t be too upset, though, when he saw that it was Mischa standing there. She gave Hannibal a big grin and pulled him into a hug without any prompting, and then walked inside the house without being invited. She and Will were probably the only two people who Hannibal found charming in their rudeness. “I wanted to give you two some time to talk and get to know each other again before I came over and started coveting all of Will’s attention.”

“Will told you he was here?” Hannibal wasn’t sure why that idea bothered him at all. Before Mischa even answered, he remembered Will mentioning she’d said something about him, on the night when Will had come back. Hannibal hadn’t put much stock in the partial sentence at the time, and hadn’t thought it was important enough to consider again later. 

Mischa shook her head. “He showed up when I was leaving, remember? He got so confused when he saw me and he looked so sad at the thought that you didn’t live here anymore. So! Tell me how things have been between you! It’s been three weeks since I’ve seen either of you. I was going to give you guys a full month, but I got impatient.”

Hannibal closed the front door, and wondered if there had been other times in his life when he’d wanted his sister to leave. It shouldn’t even matter anymore, now that Will was visible to everyone, but he couldn’t help thinking about the fact that Will had been Mischa’s for a long time before he’d ever been Hannibal’s. 

At least he could take comfort in the knowledge that Mischa had never had all of Will the way that Hannibal had. “It took a little bit of time, but Will has settled in well. He’s even been to a job interview and is just waiting to hear back about it.”

Mischa furrowed her eyebrows. “I’ll admit I’m surprised. If Will was mine-”

“But he’s not,” Hannibal interrupted in a smooth voice. 

“Are you two just going to stand in front of the door and talk about me all night? Because if that’s the case, I’d like to at least get some dinner before I hide in my room.”

The Lecters both turned to look at Will, who was leaning against the doorframe of the office. A moment later, Hannibal smelled blood, and he started to go to Will to see what had happened. He grabbed Will’s hand, and saw blood over the tip of his finger, but he could not see any source of the blood. “What happened?”

“Got myself with a fish hook. But it’s no big deal, I’m fine. The blood did surprise me, since that doesn’t usually happen, but I still healed up like normal.”

Hannibal didn’t let go of Will’s hand, and instead lifted it to put Will’s finger in his mouth so that he could lick off the blood, and then he freed Will from his grasp. Will’s cheeks were flushed a lovely shade of pink as he jammed both of his hands into his pockets, eyes flicking over to Mischa for a moment before looking back at Hannibal. “That was, uh,”

Then Hannibal reached up to pull aside the collar of Will’s shirt so that he could see the latest bruise he’d left behind. So Will could heal from being sliced open by a fish hook in seconds but this bruise had lasted for at least a day. That didn’t make much sense, but then again, nothing about Will ever seemed to make much sense to Hannibal. 

Will’s pulse jumped just under the surface of his skin, and if his sister wasn’t standing right there, Hannibal would have been happy to fully explore and leave behind marks on all of that skin. Will ducked his head down, which was probably for the best. 

Will stepped around him to walk over to Mischa, and Hannibal turned to look at them both. “Hey,” he croaked out, and then cleared his throat before trying again. “Hey. What’re you doing here?”

She raised one eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest. “Are you trying to tell me that I need an excuse to visit my older brother and my best friend?”

Will grinned. “You should probably keep it to yourself that your best friend is imaginary.” Then Mischa dropped her arms and the two of them hugged. Hannibal saw the way that Mischa whispered something into Will’s ear, but she spoke softly enough that Hannibal couldn’t hear anything other than the murmur of her voice. 

They pulled apart from each other before Hannibal could move close enough to hear anything, and then Will invited Mischa to join them for dinner because ‘Hannibal wouldn’t mind at all’. Normally that would be the case, but Hannibal couldn’t help watching his sister with narrowed eyes as she and Will sat at the kitchen island while Hannibal started cooking. 

The conversation died down somewhat while they ate, though they did all have a good laugh at the look of shock on Will’s face when Mischa poured herself a glass of wine. “You’re still just a baby,” he protested loudly. 

Mischa laughed. “Will, I’m almost forty years old.” It was almost worth it to have Mischa over and monopolizing Will’s time if only to see that gobsmacked expression on Will’s face. 

The air seemed to be a little lighter after that, and Hannibal did take pleasure in seeing how much enjoyment Will and Mischa both got out of his cooking, especially dessert. 

Instead of retiring to the sitting room for some after dinner drinks, Mischa helped with the dishes and then glanced down at her watch. “I hadn’t honestly intended to stick around for so long. I need to get home before Emmie gets worried.”

Will blinked a few times in confusion, and it occurred to Hannibal just how little they really knew about each other’s lives after all this time. “Who’s Emmie?”

Mischa looked surprised by the question, and then she gave Will a smile. “My wife. We’ve been married for about six years now. You’ll have to meet her at some point. I’ve talked about you before, though more vaguely than I would have liked, but since everyone can see you, it shouldn’t be a problem. Though she might wonder how much childhood friend looks younger than I do. And she’ll definitely wonder what someone as attractive as you is doing with my old man of a brother,” she added with a giggle.

“Mischa…” Hannibal started warningly. 

Will just shrugged. “I happen to like your brother- most of the time.” Then he gave Mischa another parting hug, and she headed out for the night with promises to visit again soon. 

Once she was gone, Hannibal practically chased Will up the stairs, more eager than he cared to admit to punish Will for that ‘most of the time’ comment. And he certainly wasn’t going to admit that just the admission of Will liking him made him feel impossible feelings. There was no doubt in Hannibal’s mind that letting Will back into his life meant accepting that he had a weakness, but it was a weakness that he intended to savor very thoroughly, for a very long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've finally figured out where I want to end this story. I'm not sure how long it will take to get there, but I do have a more solid idea than the aimless wandering that I've been doing since pretty much the beginning lol.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, if there's any major mistakes in this chapter, I was trying to divide my attention between this and the class I'm sitting in at the moment xD Just lmk if there's typos or mistakes in sentence structure or other mechanical issues

Will got the job, which he’d pretty much expected since the same job had been offered to him several years ago. Will had always enjoyed teaching, and was glad that he could continue to do it. And it also served as a good opening point when it came to showing Hannibal how important it was to let Will have the things that he asked for every now and then.

He was originally slated to start working at the beginning of the next semester, but one of the other professors had needed to take a long leave of absence for medical reasons, and Will was offered the chance to take up that class for the rest of the semester. It wasn’t his usual subjects, but he still knew what he was talking about and thought that he would be a fine teacher.

The first few weeks on the job passed by uneventfully, and Will and Hannibal ended up falling into a routine. Will had to leave first in the morning, and then he generally got back first in the evening. If Hannibal left anything that needed to be prepped for dinner, Will would do that, and then when Hannibal got home he would take over with the actual cooking part. They’d eat, and then they’d go to bed together, before waking up and doing the whole thing again. 

Will didn’t mind having a routine. It was something he’d gotten used to over the course of his very long life because most of his clients had some sort of routine enforced by the adults in their lives. But Will wasn’t so attached to the routine that it bothered him when it was disturbed, like when Mischa came over for a few spontaneous visits.

Will couldn’t help thinking that returning to Hannibal really had been the right thing to do, because he couldn’t remember a time where he’d been so happy. And it was such a strange emotion, because it was never one that imaginary friends were intended to feel. 

But he should have known that it wouldn’t last forever. At the end of one of Will’s classes, someone made his way into the lecture hall, going against the flow of students who were all eager to head off to their next classes. Will figured it was a student from one of his other classes trying to ask some questions about the paper he’d assigned, and he finished packing his bag before looking up.

As soon as he saw the person standing in front of him, Will froze on the spot, eyes wide. There, right in front of him looking quite annoyed, was Will’s boss. Not his boss through the university, but the one in charge of handing out imaginary friend assignments. The one who Will hadn’t contacted in far too long, and who most certainly would not be understanding of the circumstances Will had found himself in. 

Why did it seem so inevitable that Will could never keep the things that made him happy?  
,,,

Hannibal frowned when he finished with his second to last appointment of the day and saw some unread texts on his phone. They were all from Will, and said that he would be home later than expected, though no reason was given as to why. Hannibal knew that he was supposed to accept certain boundaries (something both Will and Mischa had told him many times over since Will’s return), but he couldn’t help feeling concerned. 

Will tended to not like texting anymore than Hannibal did, so why would he have left texts instead of leaving a voicemail message? And why had he split the short message up into so many texts? Upon a closer inspection, the real message seemed quite clear, and Hannibal narrowed his eyes at the thought of anyone trying to bring any harm to Will. How dare they? 

_‘Terribly’_

_‘Rude of me but I’m’_

_‘On the clock here’_

_‘Until late. Don’t’_

_‘Bother waiting up for me,’_

_‘l’ll be home later than’_

_‘Ever’_

With the way all the other first letters lined up, it seemed like far too much of a coincidence. The use of a lowercase ‘L’ was clearly not a typo, but an attempt to complete the message. Whatever was going on, whatever had happened, Will was in trouble. 

Hannibal concentrated on bringing Will home by suddenly closing his boundaries to the distance they had been previously, but it didn’t work, and that only concerned Hannibal even more. Whatever was going on was most likely about things beyond Hannibal’s understanding, things about being an imaginary friend. 

Hannibal had never bothered to put much thought into the fine details of Will being an imaginary friend. All that had really mattered to him up until this point was that he owned Will’s contract and therefore owned Will for all intents and purposes, and he knew that he could (usually) control how far away Will was allowed to go from him with just a thought about it. He knew that Will had been there to provide comfort and guidance to his sister while she struggled growing up in the wake of such a terrible tragic war, but that was about the extent of his knowledge. He now understood what a major undersight it had been to never try and learn more. 

Well, if he couldn’t bring Will to him in this case, he would just have to go to Will. As far as he knew, the last place Will had been was at the Quantico university campus, so Hannibal broke one of his own rules and cancelled an appointment less than twenty four hours before it was scheduled. Normally he would never cancel anything only an hour away, but he knew that Will was far more important to him than yet another one of his boring patients. He made sure to sound appropriately apologetic, and even though he was not at all feeling that way. Luckily his patient seemed to believe that because Hannibal was usually so good about everything that he would only cancel last minute for a major emergency, and told him that it was alright, and he should just take care of things and make sure that everything was going to be alright on his end.

With that taken care of, Hannibal was free to pull on his jacket and head out, driving towards the campus at a much quicker speed than he normally liked to drive. Generally he understood the need to stay off of the police radar, so he didn’t risk anything that could get him tickets, such as speeding or anything else untoward with his car. But he felt he needed to make an exception in this case because it was Will who was at stake. And knowing that Will was able to heal so quickly did not do anything to appease his worries.

When he got to the campus, it took him a few minutes to figure out which building Will worked in, and then to find a parking space that wouldn’t get him towed, and then he headed inside. Once he was inside the building, though, he knew that he was still lost because he had no copy of Will’s schedule and therefore had no idea what room or rooms Will taught his class in.

Even though he knew that it probably wasn’t the most efficient method of gathering information, Hannibal went up to every student he saw and asked if they had Professor Graham. It took a frustratingly large number of them before he finally found someone who had Will as a teacher, and they gave him a weird look, but gave him the room number that the class took place in, and then reminded him that that class had been over an hour ago and probably had a different class in there. 

Since Will didn’t have an office on campus, though, the classroom was the best lead that Hannibal could find, and he wouldn’t want to give that up. He needed to get whatever information he could about where Will was. He finally found the right room (after cursing the confusing architecture and numbering system of whoever had designed the building), and peered in. The room was empty, but Hannibal immediately recognized Will’s leather briefcase resting on the desk at the front of the room, because it was the one that he had bought for Will as a congratulations present on getting the job.

Hannibal hurried to the front of the room to grab the bag, and saw that Will’s phone was resting underneath the bag. It was turned off, and when he turned it on, the lock screen showed the notifications for the two voicemails that Hannibal had left for him, and nothing else. He wished that he knew Will’s password, but then decided that Will wouldn’t have left any important clues on the phone when he knew that Hannibal couldn’t get into it easily.

Hannibal pocketed the phone, and then opened the briefcase. Whatever the problem was, Hannibal had no idea how much time it might have given Will to leave behind clues. He’d at least had enough time to send Hannibal those texts, but was that all he’d had time for? Or was there more?

Even though he knew that it would not reflect well on him if he were to be caught rifling through a professor’s bag, Hannibal wasn’t willing to wait until he could get to a more appropriate location. He rummaged through the contents, and there were a few different folders of papers, but none of them seemed to have anything that immediately jumped out to Hannibal as being important. 

He was not supposed to get so emotionally attached to anyone. Hannibal loved his sister but half the time he could barely even tolerate her. And yet when it came to Will, he found himself unable to go on with his life without knowing where Will was, and whether he was safe or not. It wasn’t right, that Will had so much power over him, when Hannibal was the only one of the two of them that had a contract in his possession. He just wanted to be able to tell Will to go away and leave him alone so that he wouldn’t have a weakness any longer, but even just the idea of sending Will away was far too painful to consider for longer than a moment.

Of course Hannibal wasn’t going to just give up now, but he knew that he was probably not going to find anything else of any importance, at least not in this classroom. He leaned back against the desk, and reached up to press his hand against his face. What a weak man he had become because of Will. And yet how could he possibly give that up?  
,,,

Will couldn’t meet Jack’s eyes as he sat in his boss’ office. Being back home had sent a weird feeling through Will’s entire body. He had never stopped to think about the effect on the body of an imaginary friend that stayed away from home for so long. 

The seconds stretched on awkwardly until Jack finally spoke, standing up and leaning forward as he pressed his hands flat against the top of his desk. “What the hell have you done, Will?”

Will cleared his throat. “I know that I probably should have reported in sooner-”

Jack lifted one of his hands just to slam it down on the desk. “Sooner? It’s been over thirty years! And you have clearly not been with your assigned client because that was the first place I searched for you!”

Will shifted in his seat, and tried to stop himself from fidgeting with his hands. “It wasn’t exactly my choice. She gave her contract to someone else.”

Even as he said that, he knew that Jack wasn’t going to accept that as a valid excuse. “Then you should have reported back immediately at that time.” Will knew that that’s what he should have done. Returning home immediately voided any open contracts that he had with any clients. Usually the clients were children so there were no issues, but it made sure that they couldn’t maintain over their imaginary friend once that imaginary friend had been given a new assignment. And it could have been used for Will to escape Hannibal right from the start.

But Will loved being on Earth so much more than he liked being at home. For one thing there were no dogs here. For another, things never changed. Humans were always making new things and growing old and meeting new people and finding a million ways to simultaneously innovate the strangest things while also setting themselves back years at a time, and they were always in flux. Things on Earth never stayed the same for very long. That’s what made it so interesting. 

He was quickly drawn back into the conversation as Jack continued talking. “But reporting in late is, shockingly enough, not the worst thing you’ve done. Do you want to explain to me how you were holding a position as a professor? Because the last time I checked, that’s something that would require the class to be able to see you and hear you.”

It was hard to decide whether he’d get in more trouble for telling the truth or refusing to answer. But now that he was here, his contract was broken, and he was pretty sure he wasn’t going to be allowed back on Earth for a very long time. And if he was going to be stuck here, he might as well be honest about what he’d done. “I took control of my own contract.”

There was a long moment of silence, and he lifted his head to look at Jack, who was just staring at him with undisguised shock. “You what?” he finally got out, voice just barely above a whisper. Will could understand the complete shock Jack was feeling, because until he’d done it, he’d never heard of an imaginary friend taking their own contract, either. 

Will shrugged. “It made me more like a person, but still not human.”

“Why would you do that?” 

There was a quiet fury in Jack’s voice, but Will found himself feeling too tired to feel afraid. The worst that could happen was that he would be retired, but that would never change the fact that he’d done something new, something different. And there were at least a couple of humans down on Earth who would never forget about Will. “I was being treated like a tug rope and I was tired of it.” 

“Why wouldn’t you just return home?”

Will shrugged again. “Why would I want to do that?” Life at home had never been particularly bad, but it had never been nearly as good as life on Earth. Even when he lived among other people who could see him and talk to him, he’d somehow been lonelier among them than he ever had been when he was stuck with his clients as the only ones to talk to. 

He didn’t know what was going to happen to him, but he knew that it probably wasn’t going to be just a slap on the wrist. Maybe he hadn’t really broken any major rules, but that was only because he’d done something that had never been even considered before. Something was going to happen, and he was sure that whatever it was, it was going to be just like the last thing he’d sent to Hannibal- trouble.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I didn't update this as soon as usual. One of my closest friends passed away recently and it was difficult to get back in the mood for writing.

Emmie Russo-Lecter did not consider herself to be a generally anxious person. She preferred to go through life with a philosophy of ‘if something was wrong that she could control, then change it, and if something was wrong that she couldn’t control, then don’t worry about it anyways because there was nothing she could do about it’. And generally it was a rule of life that seemed to work for her. 

No amount of self-philosophising could stop Emmie from being rather worried when her wife started acting rather strangely, though. Of course she understood the need to spend time with family, and if Emmie had any left she was sure that she would love to visit them all the time. But normally, despite how close they lived to Hannibal, Mischa only went to see him every few weeks or so.

But in the past week, Mischa had gone to see Hannibal every single day as soon as she was done with work, and stayed there until very late at night. And when she did get home, she acted quiet and withdrawn, which was very different than the Mischa who was usually so loud and eager to take up space and attention. 

Emmie knew that she needed to say something, and talk to her wife about whatever it was that was going on. But even now, after years of marriage, Emmie sometimes found herself at a loss for words around the other woman. It wasn’t nearly as bad as when they’d first met, though.

Emmie had always known that she liked women, but she’d never become so tongue-tied and made such an utter fool of herself with anyone the way she had with Mischa. All Mischa had done was flash her a small smile, and Emmie had dropped her cup and spilled coffee all over her own feet. Looking back, it was something of a miracle that she’d ever been able to communicate enough to ask Mischa on a date (though several dates later it had turned out that Mischa thought they were just hanging out as friends, so at least both of them were somewhat useless).

Thoughts of the past quickly faded, though, when Emmie heard the front door open. She sat up in bed and set aside her computer, waiting patiently for Mischa to make her way upstairs. 

When Mischa walked into the bedroom, she kicked off her heels and quickly got out of her work clothes to change into her pajamas. Then she crawled under the blankets, and glanced at the computer screen, which just showed a shopping website Emmie had been browsing. “You’re up late.”

“I was waiting for you to get back.” She sighed as she shifted to face Mischa. “I’m worried about you,” she admitted. “Is everything okay with you? With your brother?”

There was a brief moment of silence, and then Mischa leaned her head back, letting it softly thunk against the wooden headboard. “You’ll probably think I’m insane if I actually told you.”

Emmie reached out to take Mischa’s closest hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “It’s you and me against the world, remember? Whatever’s going on with you, I promise to do everything I can to understand it. Please tell me about it?”

Mischa sighed, and then shifted so that her head was leaning on Emmie’s shoulder instead. It meant that they couldn’t look each other in the eyes, and Emmie didn’t try to. “Remember when I told you about my childhood friend?”

Emmie blinked once, and then gave a slight nod. “Will, right? You said that he showed up when you really needed him, after your parents passed.” She knew that it was difficult for her wife to talk about the war that she had suffered through as a child, but Will seemed inherently tied to the subject the few times that he’d come up. “You said that you haven’t seen him since you were about eighteen?”

Mischa nodded, rubbing her cheek against Emmie’s shoulder. “Yeah. But there are parts that I haven’t told you. Please promise that you won’t say anything until I’m done?” 

“I promise.”

It was another few seconds before Mischa took a deep breath and started talking. “When I told you that Will was my closest friend for pretty much my entire childhood, I meant it. You probably assumed that he’s around the same age as me, but he’s always been much older. No idea how much. Anyways, he found me in the wreckage of my old house, where I probably would have died if he hadn’t taken me away. He stayed with me when I had to spend time at an orphanage, and then came with me when my aunt and uncle found me and took me in. He was the first person I came out to, and he was always so supportive of me. 

“He stayed with me longer than he ever probably should have, and I took advantage of that, of him. And then when I was about thirteen or fourteen, we went on a trip to come here to America to visit Hannibal. I saw how lonely my brother was, and I left Will behind with him. I thought that since Will had always been my best friend, he could be the same for Hannibal. I didn’t exactly give either of them a say in the matter, though. 

“I made other friends back home, but none of them were ever as important to me as Will had been. I don’t know if it’s because Will had already been there for some of the worst moments of my life, or if it was because I felt jealous that he somehow seemed closer to Hannibal after such a short time than he ever had been with me after years. 

“My uncle died, and the more monstrous sides of my aunt became apparent. I suppose there were many things that I could have done, but in the end, I chose to ask Will to come back with me, and to protect me. I was so selfish, because I knew that as much as he cared about me, he didn’t want to leave Hannibal, but I basically forced him to anyways. 

“Now you’re probably wondering how I forced a fully grown man to do anything, but when I say that Will had very little choice, I really mean it. This is the part where you’re probably going to start thinking I’m crazy. See, the reason I could make Will come with me, or make him stay with Hannibal, is because we had a contract. A stupid piece of paper with nonsense scribbles on it that bound him to whoever had the contract. He was my best friend, but he’s also something called an imaginary friend.

“Before you start thinking you should commit me somewhere, let me finish. When I was eighteen, Will decided that he was done leaving his fate in the hands of others, so he took his own contract and left. It made it so that he could really be a part of the world in a way that had never been possible for him before. But a few months ago he decided to go back to Hannibal, and has been there ever since. It’s been great having him back, though of course I’ve grown and matured a lot since he left, and now I’m able to just be happy for both him and my brother.

“And then on Monday he just disappeared. Hannibal still has the contract, but Will is nowhere to be found, and the last thing he did was text my brother that he was in trouble. It was bad enough when he left because he wanted to, but if something’s happened to him-

“Anyways, you can laugh at me now.”

At some point during the story, Emmie had reached up to wrap her arm around her wife’s shoulders, and she rubbed soothing circles against Mischa’s arm. “I’m not going to laugh at you,” she said calmly. 

Mischa pulled away just so that she could look at Emmie with an almost comical level of shock written across her face. “You’re not?”

Emmie shook her head. “No, I’m not. I’m not going to laugh at you because I believe you.”

Mischa frowned, and crossed her arms over her chest. “You don’t need to lie to make me feel better.”

“I’m not, I promise. I believe you, because I had an imaginary friend of my own when I was younger. And not just some wisps of imagination like parents always seem to assume. She was real, solid. And I had a contract with her. It just said something like ‘Bev is my friend’, but it seemed to do the trick. She was there for me after my sister died and I really needed someone. Bev was only in my life for a year or two, but I don’t know how I would have gotten through that time without her.” Of course, they’d need to talk about Mischa using her contract to force Will to do anything, but that was something that could wait. 

Mischa blinked a few times, and then settled back into Emmie’s embrace. “Do you think all kids had imaginary friends, but no one ever wants to talk about it because everyone’s afraid that everyone else will think they’re crazy?” 

Emmie shrugged. “Dunno. But I don’t think so. Some kids don’t need one. We just… did.” She sighed as she reached out to turn off the lamp next to the bed, and then slid down so that her and Mischa were both lying down completely. “I don’t know what’s going on with your Will, and I am definitely not an expert on imaginary friends just because of a few blurry memories from grade school, but if there’s anything I can do to help, then just let me know.” 

Mischa kissed Emmie’s cheek before snuggling up closer to her and tucking the blanket over both of them. “You know what the best part about this is? Now I can tell you all kinds of stories about Will without having to try and censor out the things that wouldn’t make any sense to you. Will you… will you come with me to Hannibal’s tomorrow?”

It was a pretty important question, since Emmie had never been particularly shy about her unease around the older Lecter. She didn’t even know why, but something about him had always felt off to her. But if it was for Mischa, she could set aside her personal issues. “Yeah, of course. Just swing by to pick me up when you get out of work.”

They both murmured their nightly ‘love you’s, and then closed their eyes to go to sleep. And both of them felt content in the knowledge that whatever was going on, they would work to figure it out together.


	21. Chapter 21

Will paused when he walked by one of the few other imaginary friends that he actually got along with as he headed out of the admin building. “Francis,” he called out.

The other man looked up from whatever paperwork he’d been in the middle of filing. “Will.” His voice was quiet, like it always was, but Will had known him long enough to sense that there was something troubled in his gaze. “You’re free to go?”

Will stuck his hands in his pockets as he shrugged. “For now. I think Jack doesn’t really know what to do with me. I doubt I’ll be getting any more assignments any time soon, though.” He hesitated when a somewhat rude question popped into his head, but then decided to ask it anyways. “Why have you always worked here? I mean, most important jobs are filled by Jack’s kind, and the rest are handled on a rotation so that everyone can still take assignments, but you’ve been working here for as long as I can remember.”

Francis sighed, and set down his pen. “I forget how young you are.” Even though imaginary friends didn’t care about things like age, everyone knew that Will was the youngest around, if only because new imaginary friends were so rarely ever created. “Do you know why you were made, Will?”

“I’m assuming it was for the same reasons as anyone else around here?”

Francis said nothing as a few others walked by, chattering amongst themselves. “Meet me later. We shouldn’t talk about such things around here.”

It took Will a moment to remember that ‘later’ wasn’t the vague term humans tended to use when they wanted to avoid actually making plans. In this place, there was no day or night. There was just now, later, and before. All of them were aware of how time worked on Earth, but trying to make plans based around time when there were no clocks or changes in the sky was too difficult to bother with. “Sure.” Normally he probably wouldn’t feel invested enough in the question to actually meet about it, but it’s not as though Will had much else to do at the moment.

For now, though, he decided that it was probably best to head home. He hadn’t been there in a few decades, and he winced as he thought about what it must look like. He stepped away from the admin building at found himself at his house a few steps later. Even though he’d spent far longer here than he had been living on Earth, it still felt disorienting for a moment to remember how differently things worked here. 

And there was Will’s house, looking just as awful as he’d suspected it might. Houses here didn’t decay from time or bad weather, but from how much the owner was ‘paid’, so to speak. There was no monetary currency, but the bosses gave reviews to imaginary friends after every assignment, with higher reviews giving more energy to the imaginary friend in question. Normal assignments lasted for a couple of years at most, but Will had not been given a review in over thirty years. And he was pretty sure that even if Jack decided to give him a review right now, it wouldn’t be a flattering one. 

The inside of the house was even worse than the outside, with most of Will’s belongings gone or broken. The few things that were still fine were the ones he had smuggled in from Earth after various assignments. The paint was peeling everywhere, there were massive holes in almost every wall, there was sawdust all over the floors, and the mattress of Will’s bed (which was in the living room for some reason?) had a long tear down the middle. He was surprised that it was damaged, since it had come from Earth as well. It’s not as though imaginary friends had any need for beds, after all. 

Will let out an annoyed sigh as he ran his hand over the spines of the books on the bookcase in the living room. They were all cracked and warped. A few of them seemed to have water damage despite the houses here having no plumbing at all. He closed his eyes and tried to focus, but it was immediately apparent that he didn’t have enough energy to make even the smallest of repairs.

So he settled down on the least suspect chair, and read from the most intact book. It was a rather fascinating memoir from an imaginary friend who had been assigned to a young child who later grew up to be a murderer. Or at least, it had seemed fascinating the last time Will had read it. Now it only made him think of Hannibal, and wonder how the man was doing. 

At some point, Will decided that it was later enough, and went to Francis’ house. It was a small place, but clearly well-loved. Will had never been around before, but he decided that it suited Francis. He knocked on the front door, and Francis opened it almost immediately. “I’m surprised you came.”

“Why?”

Francis frowned. “I thought you might have decided to ask around about me, and change your mind.” Then he stepped aside so that Will could enter the house, and they went to the sitting room. 

They sat down opposite each other, and Will raised one eyebrow. “So? You were going to tell me why you never take assignments?”

Francis sighed as he leaned back in his seat. “I asked you if you know why you were made. And you were right, it was for the same reason as anyone else. Because there was an opening that needed to be filled. What you failed to ever learn is who you were meant to replace. I suppose you don’t talk much with the others.” When Will just gave a slight shrug, Francis continued. “You were made to replace me.”

Will leaned forward, interest undeniably caught. “But you weren’t-”

“Retired? I know.” Retirement for imaginary friends did not mean they stopped working and found a new hobby. It meant that they would be gone forever; it was probably the closest thing to ‘death’ that imaginary friends could understand. It was a rare occurrence, though, saved for when it was decided that an imaginary friend had simply been in circuit for too long. “I refused to be.”

Will blinked once. “What? You… refused?”

Francis gave him a small, proud smile. “Not everyone fully understands this place that we call home, not even the ones in administrators.”

“So you were old enough to be retired, which is why I was made, and-”

Francis shook his head. “We may not keep track of how many Earth years we have been around, but I know that I was nowhere near retirement age.” He let out a soft chuckle at the sight of Will’s confusion. “I killed someone. A human, on Earth. Not my assignment, but someone who was… bothering her. You are not the only one who keeps an eye on them even after you leave them. She was just a young woman trying to get by in the world. But there were people who were cruel to her simply because she was blind. So I waited until I was given my next assignment, and then took off without bothering to find the client and make a contract with them. I destroyed everyone who had hurt Reba, and then I was forced to come home. I refused to be retired though, so I was made secretary in the admin building, where they could all keep an eye on me.”

There was a long moment of silence as Will took that in. He’d never heard of an imaginary friend committing murder, and wasn’t sure how that made him feel. “Was that the first time?”

Francis gave Will a searching look before he finally answered. “No. It was merely the first time I acted without subtlety.” He crossed his arms over his chest as he continued to stare at Will. “You are not afraid of me?”

“You won’t hurt me,” Will answered with complete certainty. “How did you refuse to be retired?”

Francis shrugged. “It’s not a question of ‘how’, it’s just that I… did. Only the willing can be retired. And when our kind are told that that’s their fate, it’s usually at a point where they are relieved to hear it because they are tired of existing and living only to serve others. But I was not done yet.”

The idea that an imaginary friend could not only kill people, and not even truly be punished for it… Well Will’s crimes were hardly as bad as murder. “So if I just refuse…?”

“Then you can’t be retired,” Francis confirmed. 

And of course Will didn’t want to be gone from existence. He was nowhere near ready for that. But he also didn’t want to live out the rest of his days doing paperwork and filing things. If he had to live without doing his job, then he wanted to at least do it on Earth, with the Lecters and his teaching and the incredible unpredictability of humans. “Francis, do you know if there’s any way to go to Earth without an assignment? I mean, just popping down for a few minutes to say goodbye to former clients takes all my energy, and right now I don’t even have enough in me for that.” If anyone would know, surely it would be the one who’d figured out that he could just refuse to retire. 

Several seconds passed in silence before Francis answered him. “I’ve never tried it, but I might- might- have an idea. If I’m to help you, though, then there is one condition. I’m coming with you.”

Maybe a few years ago Will would have found himself quite opposed to the idea of bringing a confessed killer down to Earth, but after being with Hannibal, he found that he could not summon very much righteous anger at the idea. Even if Francis did decide to kill again, how would that be any worse than him knowingly eating Hannibal’s kills and doing nothing to stop him? Maybe it meant that Will’s priorities were all kinds of messed up, but he couldn’t help thinking that he would gladly bring danger to Earth if it meant he could return home.


	22. Revelations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this is on the short side, it's finals week and I just wanted to be able to get out something

In the end, Francis’ theory for how they might get down to Earth without being given assignments was surprisingly simple. Francis worked in administration, which meant that a lot of important files passed through his hands, including those necessary for handing out assignments. Francis got the idea to simply erase the name of whoever the assignment was intended for, and to write in his own instead. He’d considered the idea for years but had never ended up following through with it. 

But now that Will was onboard, he seemed ready to leave behind everything of their own world. And Will knew that he certainly wasn’t going to miss anything about the place that had created him. For him, it had always seemed like more of a place to go in between assignments than an actual home. The only place he truly felt at home was, well, with Hannibal. Maybe that meant that something in Will was messed up, to think that the place he preferred to be was with someone who had essentially held him captive and tried to take away all of his rights, but that had really only been in the beginning. Now, he and Hannibal had a… connection. One that Will did not want to give up for anything.

So even though Francis’ plan didn’t come with any guarantees, Will was going to risk it. Though it definitely helped to know that he couldn’t be retired, no matter what he did, not as long as he still felt the will to keep living. 

They waited until later, to try and lower the guard of those in administration. Will had to force himself not to peek and see how much time passed on the ground, because he hated to think about how much Hannibal must hate him. He had promised that he would never leave again, and yet, here he was. But there was nothing Will could do other than be patient and hope that Hannibal would be willing to forgive him, since this situation had been outside of his control. Even so, he wanted to get home as soon as possible. He just missed Hannibal so much.  
,,,

Hannibal kept his face blank as he looked at his guest. He wasn’t sure why Mischa thought that it was fine to just rush off and leave her wife behind for Hannibal to entertain. It’s not as though he didn’t get along with Emmie, she was a nice enough woman from what he could tell and it was clear that she loved Mischa dearly, but she was just so… other. 

Emmie set her wine glass down and then leaned back in her seat, letting out a soft sigh as she did. “Do you think you’re going to be able to get Will back soon? It must be tough to lose him again.” 

Oh, and there was also the fact that Mischa had told Emmie about Will being an imaginary friend. It was convenient that Emmie already believed in such things, or else there would have been a serious problem for Hannibal to take care of. “Will has a habit of finding his way back to me.” Though Hannibal couldn’t deny that he very much hoped that it would take less than twenty years this time. Hannibal was already getting old, and he would be quite annoyed not to have more time with Will before he died. 

“I’m sure he didn’t leave on his own,” Emmie said, as if she knew anything about Will at all. “It’s probably just like last time and someone else took his contract.”

Hannibal was about to nod along, barely paying attention to the woman, but then her words fully sunk in, and his gaze sharpened on her. “Like last time,” he prompted, knowing better than to directly question her. But he had to know what she was talking about, because Hannibal prided himself on having an excellent memory, and he could not recall any instance of someone taking Will’s contract. Mischa had willingly given it to Hannibal, and Will had willingly given it to Hannibal, and that was a strange way to word it if she just meant when Will had taken it himself, considering she’d just said she didn’t think he left on his own this time.

Emmie just shrugged one shoulder. “Yeah, I mean if Mischa could find the contract and take it, then anyone who knows about Will could break in and look. Not that I’m sure what they’d get out of controlling an imaginary friend, since as far as I can tell they don’t have any kind of special powers or anything, but it’s still a possibility.”

Hannibal felt something in his chest twist and he had to bite down the urge to snarl out loud. “Mischa told you about this? About her taking Will’s contract?”

“Yeah, she trusts me with all of that stuff.”

Hannibal couldn’t refrain from responding with a deadly, “And yet she neglected to mention that I was never made aware of such a thing.” All this time, he’d thought that Will had just chosen to leave him. But in the end it was Hannibal’s own blood who had betrayed him, and Will had avoided saying anything to protect Mischa.

Emmie’s face paled as she looked across the table at Hannibal. “You can’t honestly blame her for something that she did as a child,” she protested. She sounded scared even though she couldn’t possibly know the full extent of what Hannibal was capable of, because even Mischa didn’t know that much. 

He said nothing, but he was sure that the look on his face was enough of a response. There was absolutely nothing stopping Hannibal from blaming Mischa for what she’d done. Not when she’d taken Will away from him. Didn’t his little sister know how rude that was?


	23. The Plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's a bit late, but it was the holidays this week lol

It was strange, really. Will had spent what probably amounted to hundreds of years in the place that he was created, and yet as he prepared to go to Earth, he couldn’t help thinking that he was preparing to go home. But then again, Will knew that it wasn’t the Earth that he thought of as home; it was Hannibal.

He scanned over the papers in the file that Francis had handed to him, and then he looked at the other imaginary friend. “What’s to stop us from being dragged back the moment the administrators figure out what we did?”

“I can’t think of everything,” Francis said in his usual quiet grumbles. 

Will sighed and leaned back against the nearest wall as he tried to think. “Having a contract with a human isn’t binding enough to keep Jack from nabbing us and breaking it. How are we…” he trailed off as he gave Francis a thoughtful look. “You’ve been working in the admin building for a long time, right? Which means that you must have seen tons of imaginary friends coming back from their assignments, right? Have you ever seen anyone come back before they made a contract?”

Francis slowly shook his head. “No. Why?”

“Of course there’s no guarantee here for either of us, but… what if not signing a contract at all leaves us in a sort of in-between place? Think about it; you haven’t seen anyone recalled before their contract. And when we head down to Earth, we’re generally sent to find our client while they’re alone, but the fact that they can see us before we make a contract with them means-”

“-that potentially anyone could see us.” There was a short pause before Francis spoke again. “Actually, I think I do recall an incident where an imaginary friend made a contract with the wrong person, and had to come home to break it before returning to their intended client. It was a big deal at the time, but administration made sure that it stayed low key. But it means that before the contract is made, we must be visible to anyone.”

Will frowned. “But even when I was visible to everyone because I held my own contract, Jack was still able to force me to come back.”

Francis glanced down at the files he had stolen. “At this point wouldn’t it be easier for him to just leave us be?”

Will snorted. “Jack is not the type to just give up. Even if it takes everything in him, he’ll keep coming after us because he’ll tell himself that it’s the right thing to do. The others will probably back off, as long as neither of us do anything too public on Earth, but Jack won’t.”

There was a long moment of silence, and then Francis cleared his throat. “He’d use everything he’s got?” Will nodded, and a small grin stretched across Francis’ face. It would almost make him look kind, if it weren’t for the glint in his eyes. “Then perhaps we just need to convince Jack to retire.”  
,,,

Mischa could practically feel the tension in the air when she finally returned to Hannibal’s house. He knew that her brother was probably annoyed about having to entertain Emmie while Mischa took care of a last minute work thing, but she didn’t think that he would be at whatever level could cause this feeling. She shivered as a feeling of dread ran down her spine. If it wasn’t for the fact that her wife was still inside, Mischa would be tempted to just turn around and leave, and come back some other time.

But her wife was inside, and Mischa could never just abandon the woman she loved. So she steeled herself for whatever awaited her, and walked up to the front door. Whatever was going on, Mischa was determined to face it, and to make sure that everyone she cared about walked away unharmed.

Before she could pull out her key to unlock the front door, someone suddenly reached out and grabbed her arm. Mischa opened her mouth to scream, but then she turned and saw who had grabbed her, and she immediately relaxed. Whatever was going on with Hannibal suddenly seemed unimportant in comparison to this. “Will! Where the hell have you been? We’ve all been worried sick about you!” 

He didn’t look very well, though there were no physical indications of a problem other than his rumpled clothes. Maybe it was just because he seemed to give off an air of being very tired, despite the fact that he was incapable of sleeping. “I need your help with something important.”

Mischa furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. Why wouldn’t Will just go inside and ask Hannibal for help? Anyone with eyes could see how besotted Hannibal was. “Will-”

“You owe me,” he bit out, and then he twisted his face like the words left a sour taste in his mouth. “You took me away and gave me no choice in the matter, and I didn’t tell Hannibal anything about what you did, and for that, you owe me.”

Mischa glanced at the house, then back at Will. “What do you need my help with, anyways?” 

Will’s shoulders slumped down, like he hadn’t even expected to get that far with her. “I’m not going to be able to stay here on Earth unless my boss is dealt with.”

“Dealt with how?” Mischa asked warily. “And why would you think that this is something I can help you with?”

Will shook his head. “I don’t need your help with him, and I wouldn’t want it anyways. I don’t need you getting hurt. But I have a… friend, another imaginary friend, who needs to lie low while we wait for my boss to show up for us. And I don’t want Hannibal to know about him.”

Mischa narrowed her eyes, then she heard a slight rustling noise and noticed for the first time that there was someone else standing out there, hidden in the shadows next to the house. She couldn’t make out any specific features, but the fact that Will didn’t even react to the sound meant that that was probably his friend. “Do you really think keeping more secrets from Hannibal is a good idea?” 

“You think he’d want to know about my attractive friend who I fled to Earth with?”

Mischa sighed. “Fine. So what do you want me to do, exactly?”

Will grinned at her, and even though he still seemed ridiculously tired, the sight of that smile was enough to make Mischa start to relax before she even thought about it. “I just need you to take Francis somewhere safe, somewhere hidden. Don’t tell anyone about where you’re bringing him except for me. Please, Mischa, it’s very important that you do this for me. Please.”

It was hard to say no to anything when Will looked at her with those wide, hopeful eyes. And even if she didn’t owe him for the actions she’d taken as a teenager, he had still been the one to save her life as a child and to provide her with friendship and help throughout her childhood. Maybe this wasn’t exactly a small favor, but wasn’t it the least that she could do for him? “Fine. Can I at least get my wife first?”

“No one can know where Francis is going,” Will repeated. “I’ll make sure to let Emmie know that you’re alright, but I really need you to get going now. Please, Mischa.”

She let out a heavy sigh, and both of them already knew what she was about to say. “Fine.” She peered past Will at the still partially hidden man. “You coming?” 

The man said nothing, but stepped away from where he’d been pressed up against the house, and he walked up to Mischa. He was tall and he seemed to naturally have a looming presence, and there seemed to be something wrong with his mouth, but Mischa valued her life too much to say anything about it. She wasn’t sure why, but she got the feeling that this Francis was a dangerous person.   
She got back into her car, and glanced out at Will while she waited for Francis to get into the passenger seat. “You know this makes us even, right?” 

If Will was smart, he’d argue that even this wasn’t really enough to make up for everything Mischa had done, but Will had always been kinder than he’d been smart. He just nodded once, sharply, and then stared at her in silence until she started the car and drove away. Francis was so quiet that Mischa had to glance over at him occasionally to make sure he was actually there, but she didn’t try to start any conversation with him. She just drove, and hoped that she wasn’t doing something monumentally stupid.   
,,,

Will waited until the car was far out of sight before he went inside. He took a few deep breaths, and then went inside, and it felt just like coming home. Will made his way to the dining room, and saw Emmie and Hannibal sitting opposite each other, both looking extremely tense.

Hannibal’s back was to the door so he didn’t see Will right away, and Will cleared his throat. Hannibal whirled around immediately, though he didn’t go into predator mode, which meant that he’d probably recognized Will’s footsteps or his scent or something. That didn’t really matter, though. The important thing was the way that Hannibal looked up at Will, like he was some kind of precious miracle. Will had spent time with so many people who had relied on him before, but he couldn’t remember ever having anyone look at him quite like that, and he found that it was something he could get used to far too easily.

He stepped forward, and Hannibal moved with all his usual grace to meet Will halfway, and they both held their arms out at the same time to pull each other into a tight hug. They stayed like that for what felt like years before Will finally pulled away. “Hannibal,” he breathed out. 

“I was afraid that I would never see you again,” Hannibal admitted.

The words made Will’s chest fill with warmth. “I would have never stopped fighting to get back to your side. I promised that I’d never leave you again, didn’t I?” He hesitated for a moment, and then leaned forward to press a light kiss to the corner of Hannibal’s mouth before pulling away. “Unfortunately the fight isn’t over yet. My boss isn’t going to just let me stay here forever. But I have a plan.” 

Hannibal tilted his head to the side. “Oh?”

Will nodded, and hoped that his plan would sound feasible once he said it out loud to Hannibal. “I brought another imaginary friend with me. I needed his help to get back here and he refused to be left behind. But I think that that’s for the best. I sent him away, supposedly to hide until Jack shows up. But I’m actually using him as bait. I’ll send Jack his way so that they can fight each other, and then… well, whichever of them survives the encounter will come after me, but will be very weak from the fight. In the world we come from, my kind can’t be permanently killed unless we allow it to happen, but I’m hoping that the rules are different here. I know that we heal so quickly here, but in my world we don’t get injured at all. So I’m hoping that if enough damage is done, it’ll end an imaginary friend. But I can’t do it on my own.”

Hannibal dropped his hands to Will’s hips, and kept them there, both of them ignoring the other person in the room. It felt as though they were the only two people in the entire world when they looked at each other like this. “I would be honored to help,” Hannibal whispered, and he looked at Will with the reverance that seemed like it should only be directed at a god. “You and I will slay your dragon together.” 

And when Hannibal said anything like that, Will had no choice but to believe it. That tone wasn’t confident exactly, but just… certain. Like there was no need to sound confident because it was just a fact that they would win. And Will found that he couldn’t think of anything he wanted more than to fight by Hannibal’s side to earn his right to stay. What could possibly be better than being able to stay with Hannibal forever?


	24. The Beginning of the End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, it's hard to stick to a schedule while on vacation lol  
> Also sorry for any spelling errors, I'm tired

Hannibal offered to drop Emmie off at her own home, but she declined and called for a cab instead. He waited until she was gone, and then he and Will went into the sitting room and poured drinks. Hannibal held a glass out to Will as he gave him a considering look. “Where are we going, anyways?”

There was a short pause as Will looked at his phone, which he’d gotten back from Hannibal. “I’m still waiting on an exact address. I sent Mischa to bring Francis somewhere that only she would know about.”

Hannibal thought about asking Will why he had never told the truth about what Mischa had done, but then he just pressed his lips together and decided that it was something that didn’t need to be addressed until after they’d slayed Will’s dragon. “How long do you think it will take Jack to find Francis and for the two of them to battle?”

Will shrugged, and it looked like he was distracted by his own thoughts, barely paying attention to Hannibal. At one time, Hannibal would have found that to be quite rude, but now he was only glad to have Will back at all. He found that there were many exceptions to his usual rules he was willing to grant Will and Will alone. 

A few minutes passed in silence before Hannibal asked the question that had been on his mind since Will had proposed his plan. “You are an imaginary friend, and you were designed to watch over and protect your assignments, no? Won’t that make it difficult for you to intentionally take a life?”

Will tilted his head to the side as he thought about it for a moment, and then he gave a slight shake of his head. “I’ve never exactly been normal, even for an imaginary friend. And I know that it’s possible for us to kill, because that’s what Francis did to get himself in trouble with administration in the first place. If he could kill a human, I don’t see why I shouldn’t be able to kill another imaginary friend, so long as my theory works out. If it does turn out to be impossible, well, it’s not like they’d be able to kill me either, so we’d be at a stalemate. Though between Jack and Francis, I’m honestly not sure which one would be more likely to negotiate a deal where we all just walk away.”

Even though Hannibal fully believed in Will, he couldn’t help feeling somewhat worried for the man. “How do you know that Jack will come alone? If he brings a lot of backup, even having me on your side will not be enough to win the day.”

There was another pause as Will carefully considered the question, and then he let out a small, unamused laugh. “Jack will come by himself,” he said with complete certainty. “He’s going to feel as though Francis and I are his responsibility, and he’s going to want to fix his mistakes on his own. Bringing anyone else would mean admitting that he can’t handle the situation. And besides that, he’s probably got his own personal anger towards both of us. He’s got a job that’s already difficult enough in the first place, and having people working for him that refuse to follow the rules can’t make things easier.”

“Do you have a preference? In which one you would prefer to fight against yourself?”

Will laughed. “Jack’s the relentless sort, the kind who does whatever he’s convinced himself is right, no matter the cost. If he’s the winner, he’ll chase after me until one of us is dead. But Francis… I hardly know anything about him, but what I do know is that he killed a human who had harmed one of his previous assignments, and he couldn’t even be retired- essentially killed- because he had a strong enough will to live. I’m far more scared of him than of Jack.”

“Of course with our luck, that means Francis will be the one we’ll be stuck with,” Hannibal pointed out with a soft sigh.

It earned him a brief snort of amusement from Will. “You’re probably not wrong.”

“I rarely am.”

Will rolled his eyes and gave Hannibal a look that filled his belly with warmth, and made him wish that he had not missed out on twenty years of learning every look Will had to offer. But Hannibal was determined that nothing was going to take away his future with Will, no matter what it would take. Hannibal had only just gotten Will back, and he’d never been one to give up on getting what he wanted.  
,,,

Mischa stood awkwardly in the doorway as Francis walked through the small cliffside house. It was private and far from any nearby towns, since it was where Mischa and Emmie went when they wanted to get away from everything else for a while. It also had a lovely view of the ocean, and more importantly, nobody besides Mischa and her wife knew about it, which meant that hopefully it met Will’s requirements. 

She watched the way that Francis prowled about like an expert predator, not making a single noise as he moved. She could just tell that he was very dangerous, though she knew that Will would never put her in a situation that was dangerous to her. Even knowing that, though, Mischa knew that the sooner she could leave Francis behind, the happier she would be.

“I’m just going to step outside to call Will,” she muttered, and then hurried back out the front door without waiting for any response from Francis. She honestly didn’t care what he thought about any of this strange situation. Not when it was so clearly his fault that Will had looked so stressed back at Hannibal’s house. She wasn’t sure if Will had gotten his phone back yet, so she just dialed Hannibal’s number instead, and silently begged for him to pick up. As soon as he did, she let out a long sigh of relief. “Oh thank god. I need to talk to Will now.”

There was an amused chuckle on the other end of the line. “Of course. It would be quite strange if my sister decided to call me just to talk to me. We are only siblings, after all.”

Mischa just rolled her eyes and didn’t deign to reply to it. She also elected to ignore the strange tension in Hannibal’s voice that she couldn’t recall being there the last time they’d spoken, earlier in the evening before she’d been forced to rush off on work business. She shifted impatiently on her feet as she waited for the phone to be passed off, and then she started talking as soon as Will indicated that he was the one on the other end. “I took him to our vacation home. No one other than me and Emmie knows about it, but I can text you the directions to your phone or Hannibal’s. The address by itself probably wouldn’t be enough to help you find the place. Now do you need me to stay here and watch over this guy, or can I go home?”

For just a moment, Mischa thought that Will might actually tell her that he wanted her to just stay where she was, but then he told her, “You can go. And like I said before, you can’t tell anyone about Francis.”

Mischa couldn’t help the snort that slipped out. “Right, because I definitely planned on going around and telling all my friends that I drove a secret imaginary friend to a secret location as a favor to my other imaginary friend. I do have some self-preservation instincts, you know.” When there was no immediate response, Mischa felt the need to remind Will, “This makes us even, remember?” There was a slight waver in her voice, as she acknowledged, at least to herself, that this favor didn’t really seem to make up for what she’d put Will through. 

But Will was a better person than her, because he just gave a little laugh of agreement. “Yeah, fine, we’re even. I’m going to hang up now, but I’ll talk to you later. Oh-! And definitely don’t go back to that place until I say it’s safe, alright?”

“Alright. Take care of yourself, Will.” She paused for just a moment before adding, “I really did miss you.” Then she hung up and headed to her car without bothering to say goodbye to Francis. She didn’t know him well enough for that anyways.  
,,,

Francis watched until the car was long out of sight, and then he dropped the curtain back down and continued wandering around the house, much more attentively than when the woman had been there with him. He knew better than to trust anyone- including Will- and he planned on being prepared for whatever was going to happen next.


	25. Dragon Slayers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay; this chapter is longer than the others because I didn't want to split up any of it

Hannibal slowed the car as they got closer to their destination, and he glanced over at Will. “You’re sure that you’re ready to do this? I would not blame you if you wished for us to turn back.”

Will shook his head, and the look of determination he had was quite strong. “There’s no turning back now,” he said firmly. “Whatever’s waiting for us in that house is something that we need to face.”

“Together,” Hannibal reminded him, as if it was something that Will could have possibly forgotten. He reached out to rest one of his hands on top of Will’s, still able to easily drive with just one hand. Will felt a warmth in his chest at the thought of being with someone and truly being with them, as equals. Will had been watching over others his entire life, and it was nice to have someone else watching over him.   
,,,

When they got closer to the address Mishca had given them, Hannibal rolled the car to a gentle halt, and then shut it off, the sudden silence from the lack of engine nearly deafening for a moment. “If the victor is still inside, we would not want to alert them to our approach.”

Will nodded. “Yeah. Though if they are still there, it’s probably because they’re prepared for me- for us. This is going to be rather dangerous, you know.”

Hannibal grinned, and it was the look of a predator, but Will didn’t feel even the slightest bit afraid of him. “Oh believe me, Will, I am not afraid of danger.”

Will couldn’t help but return the smile. “Oh? Let me guess, it’s because you’re used to always being the most dangerous thing in the room.” Hannibal laughed, and then they both reached out at the same time without even needing to communicate. They threaded their fingers together, even though it put both of them at a slight disadvantage if they were to get ambushed, which seemed very likely. “It’s time to end this.”

They both moved silently the rest of the way to the house, making practically no noise at all between the both of them. As the house came into view, Will took a moment to appreciate that it was a nice looking place, and that Mischa and Emmie probably had some fond memories here. 

He exchanged a look with Hannibal that held an entire silent conversation in it. They could clearly see that there were lights on in the house, since it had started to get darker out as they walked closer, but there was no way to know whether the lights had just been left on as someone ran away in a hurry, or because someone was inside at the moment. 

After giving it some serious consideration, Will moved closer to the house, and peered in cautiously through one of windows to a well-lit room. There had clearly been a disturbance inside, as there was furniture scattered all around and lots of things were broken and toppled. There was also a large pool of blood on the floor, with more blood trailing away from it. He glanced back at Hannibal. “Looks like someone was dragged away.” 

Hannibal took a few seconds to consider the scene himself, and then lightly shook his head. “I think they dragged themself away.” They moved over to a window to the next room, but it appeared mostly untouched, so they headed back in the other direction, and went around the corner of the house. There, they could glimpse through the room and into the hall, and they could see the blood trail leading into a different room. 

They rounded the next corner of the house, and peered into a fancy looking kitchen. Will wondered if Mischa had taken after Hannibal when it came to a love of cooking, or if the house had just come well-equipped. He’d have to ask her about that later, once this was all taken care of.

The blood trail came into the kitchen from the hall, and went over to a solid looking door that was shut tight. “Pantry, perhaps?” Hannibal suggested. “Which one do you think is in there?”

Will frowned. “I don’t know. Maybe Jack? He seems more likely to run and hide when he’s hurt. I think Francis would just try to fight back harder the more injured he is, even if it ultimately means his death. But if it is Jack in there, then where’s Francis? I know that we’ve already seen a lot of blood, but there wasn’t nearly enough for fatal injuries on two different people. But I can’t imagine Francis would be the type to leave his enemy alive.” 

“I can’t claim to know either of them better than you do, but we did come here expecting an ambush. Perhaps-”

“Jack’s the ambush,” Will finished the sentence with a grim look on his face. “I don’t think they’d work together for any reason, but Francis knew we’d be coming, so it makes sense to leave Jack alive. To leave us another person to fight.”

Hannibal leaned over to give Will a quick kiss, which took him a bit by surprise. He wasn’t expecting such an intimate little gesture when they were scoping out a place where they would most likely be killing someone, but perhaps he should have. It made sense, in a weird sort of way, that this situation would get Hannibal feeling frisky. “It’s only fair,” Hannibal said, and it took Will more effort than it should have to drag himself out of his thoughts and back into the present. He made a questioning noise, and Hannibal smiled at him. “Two against two is only fair.”

Will rolled his eyes at the thought of there being any level of fairness when it came to killing anyone, but he could understand where Hannibal was coming from with that. “You know in horror movies everyone always screams at the TV that the group should not split up no matter what.”

Hannibal’s grin only grew. “Ah, but that sentiment is generally directed towards the victims of the horror, is it not? Then we have nothing to fear, Will. We are not the victims; we are the monsters.”

In some ways, it stung to imagine that anyone could see Will as a monster, after he had spent his entire life being an imaginary friend that existed to help scare the monsters away from his clients. He had always been a friend and protector to those entrusted to his care. But he couldn’t deny the part of him that had so eagerly set up this situation, when he could have just let Francis walk away, or found some way to evade Jack. Instead, he’d been thirsty for blood, and had put all the pieces into place to lead to a gruesome ending for at least two of the three imaginary friends involved. Maybe Will wasn’t a monster to everyone, but he wasn’t sure if all the good he’d done made up for the bad he planned on doing, especially when the good had only been part of his job regardless of how much he’d enjoyed doing it. 

Will reached out to take both of Hannibal’s hands, gazing into the other man’s eyes intently, searching for the truth. “If I go in there to investigate the pantry, or whatever that is, you’ll protect me?”

The look on Hannibal’s face was almost unbearably fond. He pulled one of his hands free so that he could reach up and cup the side of Will’s face. “Oh Will, I won’t have to.”

Somehow, Hannibal’s faith in him made Will feel safer than any promises of protection would have. He nodded once, and then stood up, motioning for Hannibal to stay crouched down. Will moved to the kitchen door, and pulled it open. He wasn’t sure when it had been unlocked, but he made a mental note to make sure that Mischa hadn’t left the door that way. 

He crept into the kitchen, and glanced towards the window. Of course he couldn’t see any sign of Hannibal, but he just knew that the man was there. He wouldn’t have come all this way with Will if he’d had any intention of backing out now. 

Will looked around for a moment, and spotted a block of knives. Two of them were missing, but there were still plenty left. He pulled one out, and frowned when he saw the serrated blade. That would hurt a lot more than a smooth one. Will might have come here with the express intention of ending a life, but he didn’t relish in causing more pain than necessary. 

But there really wasn’t time to be searching around for a different weapon. Of course there were probably some deadly tools in Hannibal’s car, but they’d left all of that behind and showed up empty-handed. Maybe there was more to Hannibal’s claim about ‘fairness’ than he’d thought. 

Will grabbed the handle of the pantry, and took a few deep breaths and slowly let them out. Then he turned the knob, and sighed when he was met with resistance. Of course it was locked. Well, there wasn’t going to be any element of surprise here, then. 

Will went back over to the counter and grabbed a paring knife from the block, and then jammed it into the space between the pantry door and the wall. He wiggled it around for a few seconds until he felt something give, and then he kicked the door open. 

It swung in, and Will saw the racks that were clearly meant to hold bottles of wine, but were currently empty. Not a pantry, then. Will would have to inform Hannibal that he’d guessed wrong. But there were more important things to focus on at the moment.

Like the fact that Jack was sitting on the floor next to the door, slumped over. He had one hand pressed tightly against his neck, and a large shard of glass in the other. But he hadn’t moved or reacted at all to Will’s violent entrance to the small room, and Will wondered if it could really be as easy as Jack already being dead.

He prodded at Jack’s leg with the tip of his shoe, and when there was still no movement, he crouched down in front of the body. “Jack, I want you to know that I am truly sorry about all of this. But you did bring it on yourself. If you had just left me here to live the life that I was enjoying instead of forcing me to leave and then threatening me with imprisonment or retirement then none of this would have been necessary. Still, you were always the kindest of the administrators. I think too many of the others have forgotten what it’s like to actually be an imaginary friend, out in the field.” When there was no response, Will sighed, and then reached forward with the intention of tilting Jack’s head back so that Will could look at his face. 

As soon as his hand was within range, though, Jack moved quicker than Will would have expected from someone who had lost so much blood, and the glass shard cut deeply across Will’s forearm. Will leapt back and watched as Jack scrambled to his feet. He dropped his other hand, revealing that despite being covered in blood, there was only a tiny nick on his neck. Will cursed under his breath. Everything had been riding on the idea that Jack and Francis would tire each other out too much for them to be able to heal at the normal rate for their kind, but Will had clearly made a very serious miscalculation here. 

Both of them stared at each other, clutching their weapons, each waiting for the other to move first. “Did you really think that an apology would mean anything coming from you?” Jack growled, voice much rougher than usual. Maybe the inside of his throat was still healing. “You wanted it to come to this, so don’t you dare pretend otherwise. Don’t you dare say that any of this was my fault.”

“You should have just left me alone. I was happy here.” 

Jack shook his head. “You were created- you exist- for one purpose only. To be an imaginary friend and watch over your clients until you fulfill your contracts with them. You are not meant for anything else, and the fact that you think otherwise shows just how delusional you are. I can’t believe that I ever trusted you with the children.” 

Will’s grip on the knife tightened, and he knew that if he glanced down he’d probably see his knuckles turning white from the pressure. “I would never hurt the children,” he said through clenched teeth. “How dare you suggest that I would?”

Jack gave a bitter laugh. “Because that’s so convincing coming from the man who hoped to send me to my death.”

“If it makes you feel any better, he was hoping I would die too.” 

Jack whipped around at the sound of another voice, and Will watched as Francis jammed a butcher’s knife into Jack’s chest. He was tall enough that he could meet Will’s eyes even with Jack standing between them, though Will couldn’t quite decode everything he saw in them. “Why-?”

Francis didn’t give Will a chance to ask his question. Instead, he yanked the knife out harshly, and then shoved it in the side of Jack’s neck. When Jack crumpled to the floor, momentarily incapacitated, Francis grabbed Will’s wrist with enough strenghth to leave a bruise, and yanked him out of the wine room. He slammed the door shut behind him, though he didn’t make any move to vacate the kitchen. He just squeezed Will’s wrist tighter and tighter until Will was forced to drop his own knife. 

The two of them stared at each other, and Will had to make a conscious effort not to look over at the window and give away Hannibal’s position, though he was pretty sure that Hannibal must have moved by now. “What are you doing?”

Francis sighed, but didn’t loosen his grip on Will for even a second. “I couldn’t kill him. Not on my own, anyways. He’s got much thicker skin than humans do. He can’t kill us either, but he can bring us back home and leave us there to rot forever.”

Will narrowed his eyes. “If you can’t kill him, then what makes you think that I could? We’re in the same boat here. He’s just going to heal from anything that we do to him. And that’s not even getting into the fact that you should hate me and want to kill me too, all things considered.”

Francis just shrugged. “I do hate you and want to kill you, but there will be time enough for that later. For now- hang on.” He let go of Will and threw open the wine door so that he could stab Jack again, and then slammed the door shut again. Will stayed where he was, both because he wanted to hear Francis out, and because he knew that running away would only delay the inevitable confrontation. “I already told you why they could never retire me. It’s because I didn’t want to die. Jack’s admin, but he’s still one of us in the end. He can be retired, but only if he’s willing to accept it.”

Will furrowed his eyebrows. “So how does that help us? Jack would never just-”

“That’s why I can’t do it on my own,” Francis interrupted. “I’ve never been the best with words. Now you, on the other hand, have always had a way of getting into peoples’ heads. So get into Jack’s, and tell him whatever it takes to get him to back down. All I need is for him to be willing to go, just for long enough for me to kill him.”

“And then how do you plan on killing me afterwards?”

Of course he’d never actually let Francis kill him, but Will couldn’t deny that he was curious to at least know what Francis’ plan was. “I guess you’ll just have to wait and see.”

Will sighed, but he nodded once, and then pulled open the wine door. When Jack lunged at him, Francis interfered and slammed the man down into the floor. He stabbed Jack a few more times for good measure, and then stood up and moved to the edge of the room so that Jack could just focus on Will.

Will knelt down next to Jack, and gulped once as he realized what he was about to do. It was bad enough to be responsible for killing Jack, especially since he knew that Jack was actually a good person despite his gruff exterior, but to intentionally tear down the man’s will to leave seemed like a much worse kind of crime. 

Still, it was what had to be done. Things had already escalated far too much for them to ever go back. Jack was certainly not the type to just give up and go home and pretend like none of this had ever happened. So Will took a moment to organize his thoughts, and then spoke in a gentle voice. “Jack, do you remember when you were an imaginary friend? I know that it must have been long before my time, but you must still remember. The way it feels each time that you get a new assignment, and you get that jolt of excitement that runs through your entire body. Sure, our home is a nice place, but in the end, that’s all it is. A nice place that never changes. Even the faces around you stay the same year after year with only a few exceptions. That’s why it’s always so exciting to get a new assignment, because it means that you get to visit Earth for a while. Usually only a few months, but sometimes your kid needs you longer, and you could be around for a couple of years.

“And Earth is such a beautiful place. Not because of the scenery, though a lot of that is nice too, but because of the people. Humans have such short little lives, which means that they work harder than any of us to make their time here meaningful. They feel everything so much more intensely than we do, whether it’s anger or joy or passion or fear or creativity. They put so much effort into everything that they do, and because of that, humans are always evolving, and changing the world too.

“This world is so bright, so vibrant compared to ours. I wonder if you stopped to notice that when you came to pick me up, or when you came back to track down Francis and me. I think you did notice, though you probably tried not to. I think you noticed, and you remembered what a beautiful place this is. You used to get to be a part of all of this, even if it was just in a small way. But you haven’t been a part of this world in a long time, Jack.

“What’s going to happen if you win this battle? You might drag your feet a bit, take a chance to see the sights, but that’s only going to make it worse when you have to return home. Back to that wretchedly nice place where everything is always the same, day in and day out. Not that you’d know that, since our home has no real sense of what a day is. What’s the point to any of it? You don’t make the lives of the children better; that’s the job of the imaginary friends who get sent out to be with their clients for as long as they’re needed. And stuck up there in that beige imitation of the world, you’re never going to find yourself feeling things the way you can here. You’ll never feel passion or excitement or joy. You’ll be forced to spend the rest of eternity looking down on this world without ever being able to touch it. You’re just going to keep existing, the same way you always had.”

Jack narrowed his eyes as he sat up, wounds mostly finished healing. “And what makes you so different? Why are you so special that you don’t have to keep doing the job that you were meant for?”

Will couldn’t help the sappy little smile that grew on his face as he thought about his answer to that. “I became a part of this world, getting more than just a few glimpses through the eyes of my clients. I’m a real boy, Jack, and I- I have love. The love of someone who never wanted to let go of me as she grew up, and the love of a man who really sees me.”

“And who are you to say that I could never have any of that?”

Will shrugged. “Sure, you could do the same thing I did. Take your own contract and become a part of the world. Be seen and heard by everyone around you. But it wouldn’t matter, because you’d still be stuck in a world without all the feelings that make everything worth it.”

“Why?” Jack asked, voice softer.

Will took a deep breath in. He only needed to make Jack doubt his will to live for a moment. Jack was strong, and would surely bounce back from anything that Will could say to him, but Francis wouldn’t give Jack the chance. “Because no one’s ever going to love you, Jack.”

Then there was a sudden, loud bang, and Jack dropped back to the floor, a bleeding hole coming from his forehead. Will looked back to see Francis holding a gun, which he lowered a moment later. Will looked back at Jack’s body, and felt a genuine sorrow for the man’s death, but he didn’t feel any regret. He did what was necessary to preserve his life here, with Hannibal and Mischa and his students and bills and taxes and everything else that Will loved. 

His eyes widened slightly as he watched Jack’s body. Instead of staying there like a human corpse would, it began to fade away right in front of his eyes. When it was gone, there was a slight clink, and Will stared at the bullet that had seemingly fallen out of the air and into the pool of blood on the floor. 

Before Will could do anything else, there were a few more loud bangs, and then he felt a searing pain in his back. He knew that it wouldn’t kill him, but apparently getting shot was an extremely painful experience, and he didn’t want to have to feel that again. 

As he lay sprawled out on the ground, partially on the same spot that Jack had just died, he heard Francis’ footsteps come closer. “It was worth a try,” he said with something like amusement in his voice. Will wanted to curse the man out, but in the end it wasn’t anything that he wouldn’t have tried himself if he’d been given half a chance. 

Will heard Francis walk away, but he couldn’t summon up the energy to care about where he might have been going. His back felt like it was freezing cold and on fire at the same time, and he didn’t know how humans managed to survive these types of injuries so often. 

There was another bang, though it wasn’t nearly as loud, and after a moment, Will realized that the sound had to have come from somewhere outside. He gasped, and then grit his teeth to try and ignore the pain as he got to his feet. He knew that he was already healing even as he made his way closer to where the noise had come from, but that knowledge didn’t make the pain disappear. 

When Will got outside, he saw Hannibal leaning up against the house, and even though it was fully dark out by now, Will could see the patch on Hannibal’s pant leg that was much darker than the rest of the fabric, and he could see the pain on Hannibal’s face that he didn’t bother to hide.

Will hurried over to Hannibal, doing his best to ignore his own pain. “We have to get to cover.”

Maybe that was already obvious, considering that Hannibal had been shot and Francis was nowhere in sight, but it made Will feel better to say something. He grabbed Hannibal’s arm and threw it over his shoulder so that he could help the man limp inside the house. They both stayed low to the ground, and Will pulled of his jacket so that he could tear the sleeve and wrap it around Hannibal’s wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding. After years of soothing scraped knees and broken arms, Will was well aware of just how slowly humans healed. 

There was no sound coming from outside, though Will had no doubt that Francis could move around stealthily enough to get the drop on them. He looked around the room, and cursed Mischa for buying a house with so many windows everywhere. “Where’s Jack?” Will blinked a few times, then turned to look at Hannibal, who had picked up the used bullet off of the floor. “I heard four shots, but you only appear to have taken three.” He nodded towards the discarded jacket that now sported three bullet holes in it.

“Well, there is some good news, here. Jack’s dead. The bad news is that I’m pretty sure we have no chance against Francis. He and I could fight each other everyday for the rest of eternity and neither of us would win. What I did to Jack won’t work on Francis- he’s already had far too many years where he could have easily given in, but he never did because he has a very strong will to live.” Hannibal didn’t ask what exactly Will was talking about, and Will didn’t bother to explain. 

Hannibal frowned as he considered the idea that they had no chance at victory. It clearly didn’t sit very well with him. “So then does he plan on fighting against you for all of eternity? If so, that seems like he would have been better off just staying where he was before.”

“You’re not suggesting we form a truce?” Will asked with blatant surprise. 

Hannibal tilted his head slightly as he looked at Will. “Jack was the threat who could have taken you away from me, but Francis can’t do that to you, and I don’t think you can do that to him. Would it really be so terrible to settle some terms of peace?”

Before Will could share exactly how terrible he thought that would be, there was another bang, and it seemed like the nearest window exploded glass shards all over them. Will quickly jumped on top of Hannibal to protect him, since he would survive any amount of damage, while Hannibal was only human.

The two of them hustled out of the room, and Will tried to ignore how much his back hurt. The shots had just about finished healing before he’d had glass rain down on him. At least Hannibal had only taken a few extra scrapes, though. Humans were so fragile, and Will found himself doubting the decision to bring Hannibal along. But he knew that he wouldn’t have been able to just leave the man behind, so there was no point in thinking about how he could have done things differently.

They ended up in a room that they hadn’t seen during their initial peek of the house, and it had a glass slider that led out onto a balcony with a lovely view of the ocean below a cliff. In any other circumstances, Will would have taken the opportunity to enjoy the view, but at the moment there was definitely no time for sight-seeing. 

As Will turned in a slow circle, trying to take in every detail of the room to figure out where would be the best place to hide and/or grab a weapon, the glass of the slider was completely shattered as Francis ran right through it. Will was standing closest, and was knocked back by the force of all the little bits of glass digging into his skin. 

From the floor, he watched in horror as Francis managed to slice across Hannibal’s side, since Hannibal’s injured leg slowed him down too much to dodge away in time. Then Hannibal and Francis started grappling with each other, moving too quickly for Will to be able to tell who was winning.

They made it out onto the balcony, and Will forced himself to his feet so that he could run out there and join them, though he took a page from Jack’s book and grabbed one of the larger shards of glass first. He stabbed Francis in the back while he was busy with Hannibal, and it was enough to drop the imaginary friend long enough for Hannibal to catch his breath. 

Will ran a quick eye over Hannibal to take in all of the injuries, and then he crouched down in front of Francis. He dropped the glass shard so that he could give his hand a chance to heal from the sharp slices it had made across his palm and fingers. Though he had learned his lesson from before, and he made sure to stay out of range of any flailing hands holding sharp objects. “If we keep doing this, we’re just going to keep going on forever. I hate to even suggest it, but perhaps we should consider the idea of finding a peaceful solution here. If we just agree to stay far away from each other-”

Francis spit a glob of blood at Will’s face, and then leapt to his feet to grab for Hannibal again. “Maybe you and I can dance forever, but your man can’t. Let me kill you now and I’ll let him live.”

Will didn’t need to see the warning look in Hannibal’s eyes to know that that was a terrible idea. He scoffed, and crossed his arms over his chest. “Surely you of all people can understand why I can’t just give up. And besides, I don’t believe for a second that you’d keep your word. Come on, Francis, be smart. Did you really escape to Earth just to fight me forever?”

“You started this fight,” Francis growled out. And maybe he had a small point, but not enough of one that Will would let it stop him. “You could have just worked with me from the start to get rid of Jack and we’d both go our own ways. You’re the one who tried to set me up because you wanted to see which of us would fail.”

Then Hannibal struck out, which clearly Francis hadn’t been expecting. He pinned Francis’ arms to his sides, and Will walked over, not willing to look away long enough to grab the shard again. Instead, once he was close enough he lunged forward and bit into Francis’ neck, tearing through the delicate flesh and yanking back like a rabid animal. Blood spurted out everywhere, coating Will’s face in a thick layer of it.

Before Francis could start to heal from the brutal injury, Will grabbed one of his arms while Hannibal held the other, and the two of them heaved Francis’ body right over the railing of the balcony, and they watched as it fell all the way down and then disappeared into the dark waves below. “That isn’t going to kill him,” Will reminded Hannibal. “But still, it felt so…” he trailed off, unable to find words big enough to capture the feelings of the moment.

Hannibal grabbed Will and pulled him into a kiss, licking the blood off of Will’s lips. They stayed embraced like that for what felt like ages before Hannibal stumbled back, and Will remembered that Hannibal had gotten injured quite badly. He couldn’t take him to the hospital, though, because gunshot wounds always got reported to the police, and this was definitely not something that could be explained properly to the cops.

So Will helped Hannibal back to the car, half-carrying him all the way there, and then made Hannibal sit sideways in the backseat with his legs extended out. Will grabbed the first aid kit from the trunk and got to work. He was used to patching up wounds, though he’d never had to work on anything so serious before. 

It helped that Hannibal was able to stay conscious through the pain and talk Will through all the necessary steps of what he was doing. When he was satisfied with his work, he let Hannibal pop a few pain pills, and then encouraged the man to sleep as they drove home. There was still work left to be done, but for now, they were victorious.  
,,,

Will knew that Francis would recover sooner rather than later, so even though he knew what he needed to do to solve the Francis problem once and for all, he decided to wait until Hannibal had fully recovered. Will needed to know that Hannibal would be able to protect himself while Will was gone, even if it was just for a little while. 

A few weeks after the confrontation there had still been no sign of Francis, which only made Will feel more on edge. In hindsight, bringing Francis right to Hannibal’s home had been a bad idea, and he was constantly worried that Francis was going to show up in the middle of the night and finish the job he’d started on Hannibal.

Hannibal was much less worried, or at least he was able to act less worried. Which was nice, because it calmed Will to see that Hannibal was unafraid, even though it probably should have just worried him more. But he knew that Hannibal was taking the situation seriously, and he knew that Hannibal would be able to defend himself in his own home of all places.

When Hannibal finally took out the stitches that Will had clumsily put in, he looked up at Will curiously. “Are you finally going to tell me what this brilliant plan of yours is?”

Will sighed, and fidgeted with his sleeve. “You made me think of it, actually. When you said Jack was a threat because of his ability to force Francis back, but that I couldn’t do the same. But there is one way that I could. See, new imaginary friends are made when old ones are retired, but administration is made up of imaginary friends that get promoted. With Jack dead, there’s an opening in administration.”

Hannibal furrowed his eyebrows. “Somehow I find it hard to believe that they would give the position to the man who murdered Jack.”

“Well obviously not. At least not willingly. But I also know that pretty much everyone in administration is old and tired and probably wouldn’t be able to stop me from sneaking in and taking the position.”

Hannibal chuckled. “I didn’t realize that you could ‘steal jobs’ in the literal sense. It would certainly make things more interesting if humans could do the same.”

Will shrugged. “Obviously it would be looked down on, and the other administrators wouldn’t want to work with me, but that wouldn’t matter. What does matter is that I’d be able to force Francis to go back home, and I’d be able to come back here without having to worry about taking on an assignment. The others also wouldn’t be able to force me to go back. There’s no demotions in our world, either.”

“So that’s the plan, then? You sneak in and steal a promotion so that you can force Francis to go back? How will you get there in the first place?”

“That’s the easy part. There’s not nearly enough admins to cover every single imaginary friend, so we have to be able to get back on our own once we’re done with a contract, or if some other emergency occurs. I can just pop back there and then do the rest. The only problem is that it means leaving you to defend yourself for however long it takes me. Time works differently there, and even if I’m only a few minutes, it could take days or weeks down here. I don’t want to come back to find you dead.”

When Hannibal tilted his head and got that certain look in his eyes, Will just knew that he was about to say something that Will wasn’t going to like. “I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. That being said, however, I can acknowledge the difficulties in holding my own against someone who heals so quickly and cannot be killed. While I could go into hiding somewhere, I would feel safer having you within my sight. So you should just take me with you.” 

Will’s eyes widened, and then he immediately shook his head. “No way! No human has ever been there before, and I have no idea what kind of effect it could have on you!”

Hannibal just arched one eyebrow in that prim way of his. “You promised you wouldn’t leave me again,” he pointed out, which was really entirely unfair since Will planned on coming back as soon as he’d finished doing what he needed to. “Besides, there is the ever-present possibility that I could be of some help to you. I may not know my way around your world, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t assist you. And where could I possibly be safer from Francis than in the last place he would ever want to go?”

Will groaned because he didn’t want to admit that Hannibal might actually have a point. He reached up to run a hand through his hair as he paced back and forth across the bedroom. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re so annoying?”

“I believe you have, on multiple occasions.” There was an amused glint in Hannibal’s eyes that said Will was the only one allowed to get away with talking so rudely to him. “Well? What is your verdict?”

Will let out an excessively long sigh, and then finally sank down on the edge of the bed. “Fine. But again, I have no idea what happens to humans when they go to my world. And I won’t have any way of sending you back here until after I’ve gotten that promotion, which means that even if it’s killing you, there won’t be anything I can do about it.”

Hannibal reached out to take Will’s hands. “I understand that there are risks. But I promised you that we would slay your dragon together, and while seeing you bathed in blood and moonlight was… rapturous, for lack of a better word, your dragon has not yet been slain. Let me help you, Will.”

Will closed his eyes in defeat, and then slumped forward into Hannibal’s chest, though he was careful not to knock into the man with too much of his weight. Even though he was mostly healed now, Hannibal was still sore, and Will knew that there were going to be scars left behind. “I said ‘fine’.” Then he shifted so that he and Hannibal could lie next to each other and carefully cuddle. “We’ll go tomorrow. Right now I just want to lie here like this.” Even though Hannibal was so much more fragile than Will, and Will was basically indestructible, he still found that he felt safest when he was in Hannibal’s arms.


	26. Old Faces

Hannibal looked around, clearly curious about his surroundings. Will couldn’t really blame the man, since he’d done the same thing the very first time he’d gone to Earth. He could still remember the way he’d nearly walked right past his client because he’d been so busy taking in everything there was to see. 

But Hannibal was smarter than Will, at least smarter than Will had been back then, and he was able to pull his focus away from the newness of the world around him. “So this is it, then? We’re really here? Is there any way that your people will be able to tell that I’m not supposed to be here?” 

Will gave Hannibal a long look, and tried to figure out if there was anything that made the man stick out too much. “Do you remember that time you told me that you’d know if there was anyone in your neighborhood that wasn’t supposed to be there? Not because they did anything in particular to stand out, but because you made a point of learning the names and faces of all your neighbors?”

“Ah. I had imagined that there would be quite a few imaginary friends, for all the children in the world who claim to have one.”

Will shrugged one shoulder. “There are a lot of us, though because we generally only stay with each client for a short amount of time, there’s usually no issue of a shortage.”

Hannibal tilted his head, and gave Will the look that always meant he was hungry for new information. “How many imaginary friends are there in total?”

“Well, not counting administration, there’s probably about a million of us.”

“And you all know each other?” 

Will shrugged again. “Not exactly. Like I wouldn’t walk up to some random person and just start talking to them like we’re old buddies, or anything like that. I’m not great at explaining this. I guess… I guess for the most part there really isn’t any way to tell the difference, even though it seems like I at least know of everyone here, even if I don’t know them all personally. So yeah, a human and imaginary friend can’t be told apart, least not on my end. Have you really never looked at me and thought that there was something not quite right about me?”

Hannibal shook his head. “I would never say that there’s anything wrong with you, Will.”

Will rolled his eyes. “Alright, enough with the lessons. We just need to get into the admin building as quickly as possible. Once I get that promotion, there won’t be any particular hurry to leave, because there’s nothing that the other administrators would be able to do to us, but that doesn’t mean that it will be easy to actually get in. Administration is surprisingly untrusting of the imaginary friends, if the way they lock up tight is anything to go by. Come on, this way.” 

As they moved, Will kept part of his focus on Hannibal so that he could make sure the man didn’t wander off or catch the attention of someone that he shouldn’t. He could see the surprise cross Hannibal’s face when the scenery around them shifted, and it occurred to Will for the first time just how alien this place must seem to Hannibal. To Will, here and Earth were both equally real places because he’d spent his entire existence going back and forth between the two. But Hannibal, despite having known about imaginary friends for most of his life, had never actually seen the place where it all began. 

Under different circumstances, Will might have taken the opportunity to laugh at the sight of Hannibal being out of his element for once. But they were trying to be stealthy, and riling Hannibal up would not be a good way to go about it. They kept moving until they’d walked up the front steps of the administration building, and then Will paused just outside the doors. 

Hannibal glanced around to see if anyone had spotted them, and then looked back at Will. “Shouldn’t we wait until night falls? Perhaps I’m no expert at breaking and entering, but it seems fairly obvious that it’s easier to do so when nobody is around.”

Will sighed. “There is no nightfall around here, and technically it’s not daytime right now either. The passing of time is something that humans and imaginary friends mark very, very differently. There’s pretty much no time when this building will ever be entirely empty.”

“And that means that we should just walk right in through the front door?”

Will nodded. “Yes, actually. There’s no other entrances.” He could tell that Hannibal was still confused, though. He was probably wondering why Will had made a big deal about them sneaking around if he’d known from the start the building would be occupied and they’d have to go through the front door. But that’s just because Hannibal was so used to thinking from his human perspective of dealing with other humans. There were more ways to sneak around than just avoiding been seen.

He took a deep breath in, then slowly let it out. It’s not as though he could be upset with Hannibal for not understanding something that hadn’t been explained to him. But it hadn’t really occurred to Will to explain any of this in advance, because to him, it all just seemed so obvious. 

Before he could say anything else, though, another voice called out to them. “Will? What are you doing here?” 

Will and Hannibal both whirled around at the same time, and looked at the woman who’d spoken. Will tried to relax slightly when he saw who it was. “Bev, I thought you were still out on assignment.”

“Just got back. I was about to file my report.” She gave a pointed nod to the administration building behind them, and then looked directly at Will. She crossed her arms over her chest, and had her patented unimpressed look. “I may have been on Earth, but even I heard about what happened. Everyone knows.”

Will frowned as he considered that, but he didn’t panic. It was never a good idea to panic, but especially not before knowing all of the information about a situation. “What does everyone know?”

Bev’s eyes flicked over to Hannibal for a moment before moving back to Will, and Will knew that she was dying to know who he was and why he was there. But she was kind enough to answer Will’s question instead of asking a few of her own. “About you. About what you did. Taking control of your own contract and going awol for ages. I was worried that something terrible must have happened to you. But you seem alright to me.”

She was clearly prodding him for answers, but Will knew that he didn’t have the time to stick around and chat. Then again, Will wasn’t alone. He didn’t need Hannibal’s help breaking into the admin building, especially since Hannibal was so clueless about the way this place worked, and he had always been quite good at capturing the attention of his audience. Will used his elbow to lightly nudge Hannibal in the side. “Bev, this is Hannibal. Hannibal, Bev. He can tell you all about what I got up to in my time on Earth.”

“And you can’t?”

She’d always been one of the smarter ones, and even though Will would never go so far as to say that they were friends, he could easily admit that he’d always admired Bev. “I just have a few important errands to run. You know how it is with paperwork around here. I’ll be back sooner than later, promise.” He waited impatiently for Bev to nod once, and then he turned and walked through the front doors of the admin building.

He wasn’t sure what to expect when he walked in, but he still felt a bit surprised that there didn’t seem to be any sign of mourning going on. He had to wonder about whether or not these people even knew about Jack’s gruesome end. Surely they’d be more broken up about it if they knew that one of their higher-ups was gone forever?

Will moved at a slow, casual pace. Even if no one knew about Jack’s end yet, they surely had to know about how Will and Francis had taken off for Earth together. But nobody even tried to stop him as he made his way up to Jack's office, and Will couldn’t help feeling as though something was terribly wrong. His instincts told him to turn back while he still could, but he needed that promotion if he wanted to have any chance of not only dealing with Francis, but also getting Hannibal home in one piece.

So despite everything in him screaming out that it was a terrible idea, Will pressed on. Francis’ desk was empty, and there were stacks of folders and papers, like people had just tossed them down on the desk without caring that no one was actually sitting there to do any of the work that was needed. 

Will paused just in front of the door to Jack’s office. Jack’s name was still engraved on the little plaque next to the door, along with the proud proclamation that he had been serving his role since nearly the beginning of the time of imaginary friends. It was somewhat strange that his name was still there, and Will found himself half-expecting to push the door open and find Jack sitting behind his desk like usual. What if killing an imaginary friend on Earth didn’t actually retire them, and just sent them back home? Or what if Jack had figured out a way to fake dying, since he had disappeared and left no trace. Or what if-?

No, Will wasn’t going to do that to himself. He couldn’t stand there all day thinking about the possibilities. He just needed to go inside, grab that promotion, and get it all over with. Will took a deep breath, and pushed the door open. He froze in the doorway when he saw that the office was not empty at all.

“Hello, Will. Do you even remember me? I’d say from all of the calls of mine that you refused to answer that you probably do.”

Will just stared for several long seconds as his mind rapidly tried to process what he was seeing. “What-?”

“You didn’t think you were really the first imaginary friend to figure out how to quit the gig, did you? Of course no one was going to mention me; I was here and then gone long before you were even a thought in the back of someone’s mind. From the moment I first saw you out there, I knew that you were just like me, and I knew that you would be one to keep an eye on. And it turns out that I was right. Now here we are, one promotion, two friends. What are we going to do about that?”

Maybe Will should have tried harder not to ghost the friends he had made during his time on his own, but in his defense, he’d had a lot going on lately, and he couldn’t be expected to keep up with everyone. Maybe if he had, though, he wouldn’t be standing here right now, facing off against Rob.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there's just one chapter left of this story (including an epilogue at the end of it). It's probably going to be on the longer side, but I will still do my best to post it as soon as possible.
> 
> Also, for those who don't remember, Rob was the old colleague that Will talked to on the phone while he was in Hannibal's office, before he was able to get a new teaching job.


	27. The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, just a quick reminder before you start reading this- I did tag this story as having a happy ending

_Sometimes it could be quite painful to think about the past. Of course there were happier memories, but they always ended up shaded over in the reds and grays of the tragedy that had followed. Mischa tried not to think about the past too often, because she couldn’t stand the pain that came with it, though it had gotten easier over the years._

_Sometimes, Mischa wondered if it was all her fault. It had all started with her, after all. Oh, of course she didn’t blame herself for Will being assigned to her in the first place; she’d just been a little kid with no control over the matter. But later, when Mischa did have control, she’d let it go to her head. She’d refused to let go of Will even long after he’d started hinting that it might be time for their contract to end._

_And then she’d done the most outrageous thing of all, when she’d handed Will over to her brother like he was a plaything that could be passed around. It had been unfair to all of them, but especially to Will. Then she’d childishly tried to take him back, trapping him in the most complicated game of tug-of-war there was. So was everything that had happened after that Mischa’s fault? If she’d just let Will return home when she was a child, would he have moved on to his next client and hardly given the Lecters a second thought?_

_But then, if Mischa had not given Will to Hannibal, what would that have meant for either of them? It was so clear that they had been madly in love, at least after Hannibal had stopped trying so hard to control everything about Will, and even though Will was awkward and not great at talking about his feelings, it was pretty obvious that he’d felt the same way._

_When she felt a gentle hand rest on her shoulder, Mischa quickly turned to look, and then relaxed when she saw that it was her wife. “Hey.”_

_Emmie held out the bouquet of flowers that Mischa had left in the car. “Did you have any interesting conversations while I was gone?”_

_Mischa rolled her eyes as she accepted the flowers. “Yeah, because my brother is chatty Kathy right now.” Then she crouched down so that she could rest the flowers in front of the stone with Hannibal’s name written out. She reached out to trace her fingers over the letters, and hated the way that her hand shook when she did. “Shouldn’t this be easier by now? It’s been so long.”_

_Emmie crouched as well so that she could put her arm around Mischa’s waist. “I don’t think it’s ever supposed to get easier. How could you ever stop being sad that your brother died?”_  
,,,

Will blinked in surprise as he looked at the man in front of him. “Well this is unexpected,” were the first words that slipped out. “Jack made it pretty clear that no one had taken their own contract before.”

Rob shrugged. “I was gone before Jack’s time. And of course you’d never have heard of me; you’re basically still an infant.”

Will narrowed his eyes. “So if you’ve been living on Earth for such a long time, why bother coming back here?”

“Well, I never expected that anyone would have the balls to kill an administrator. I’ll admit, I’m impressed that you came up with the idea.” When Will just stared at him, Rob sighed. “Look, I’ll be the first to admit that I enjoy life on Earth, but there are certain privileges that I’ve quite missed having, and taking this promotion would hand all of them right to me. If you back off now, I can promise you a cushy place in the new order that I’m going to put in place. Otherwise, well. I’m much, much older than you, Will. I think it’s pretty clear which one of us would win in a fight.”

“When we were friends on Earth, did you know that I was an imaginary friend?”

There was a short pause, and then Rob shook his head. “No. I never even considered the idea for a second, since everyone could clearly see you and interact with you. I suppose it was arrogant of me, but I never thought that any others would finally wisen up. It wasn’t until I heard all the gossip about how Jack had dragged you back that I realized.”

Will furrowed his eyebrows. “How could you have heard that if you were on Earth?”

Rob rolled his eyes, like Will had just asked a question with a very obvious answer. “I may not have realized that you were an imaginary friend, considering that you were made long after I was gone, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t recognize or find others. Did you never notice that you could still see other imaginary friends even after taking your own contract?” Will shrugged awkwardly. He’d never seen any reason to look, so it made sense that he’d never encountered any. Rob laughed. “Alright, yeah, I can buy that based on what I know of you from our time working together. The point is that gossip spreads fast, especially among those who think that they can’t be seen or listened in on. When I heard what you were, I wasn’t sure what to think.”

“How did you know about Jack?”

The look of pride that Rob gave him made Will shift uncomfortably. Considering that Rob had apparently been around on Earth longer than Will had even existed, it meant that their few short years as coworkers was basically no time at all to him, so there was no reason for Rob to look so proud of Will. “Oh, I’m sure you went underground to avoid the fuss that came after, but believe me, there hasn’t been any fuss. Not yet, anyways. I don’t think anyone here knows what happened to him.” When Will opened his mouth to repeat his question, Rob waved his hand to cut him off. “I found out when a certain imaginary friend named Francis showed up on my doorstep. He and I aren’t exactly pals, but he knew of me enough to look for me, and he told me what happened.”

Will frowned. “Then you know that he’s the one who killed Jack.”

Rob scoffed. “Oh, he may have been the one to take the shot, but we both know that the one who actually killed him was you. Anyways, Francis told me the whole story, hoping that I’d help him to finish you off. But as soon as he said Jack was permanently dead, I saw that for the opportunity that it was, and came here. I wonder if it would surprise you to know that I only beat you here by a relatively short amount of time? Or at least, I assume I did. I don’t think I was here that much before you, but it is admittedly a bit disorienting to remember that time works so differently here.”

“Then why haven’t you taken the promotion yet? If you got here before me, why didn’t you just go for it? Don’t tell me that you were waiting for me; you couldn’t have possibly known that I was coming here.” 

A few moments passed in silence, and then Rob slowly stood up from where he’d been leaning back in Jack’s chair. “I had hoped. You’re so very clever, Will, and I knew that you’d recognize this opportunity as well.”

Will gave Rob a long, searching, look, and then let out a little chuckle. “Oh, I see. You don’t know how to get promoted, do you? No one’s ever tried to be promoted without earning it, have they?” The way Rob immediately stiffened his entire body before relaxing again seemed like answer enough. This was a good thing, since it meant that Will still had time. Unfortunately, it also meant that he had no idea what to do either. Stealing promotions wasn’t commonplace practice, and if it had been done before, the perpetrators certainly hadn’t shared their secrets. But it’s not as though Will could try to search Jack’s office for clues, not while Rob was still sitting right there, anyways. And he was sure that Rob was right about being older and stronger, so even though neither of them would be able to kill the other, Rob would still be able to win a fight at least long enough to get what he needed. 

Maybe to others it would seem like a cowardly move, but Will found that he was perfectly willing to be called a coward if it meant that he was in the right shape to try fighting again when he had a better chance. So instead of sticking around and trying to get more answers, Will quickly ducked out of the office and ran for it. He’d just grab Hannibal so that they could regroup and think of a new plan. Hopefully it would turn out that Hannibal had been right when he’d suggested that he might actually be useful here.  
,,,

_Mischa still remembered the day it had happened. After leaving Francis behind at the vacation house, she’d gone straight home, and was relieved to be able to melt into her wife’s arms. She wasn’t really sure what was going on, but the relief she’d felt at seeing Will return safe and sound had been somewhat outweighed by her concern over whatever strange plan he’d concocted that involved hiding away that dangerous stranger._

_Days passed before she got a simple text from Hannibal saying that he and Will were alright, but that she was not to come visit them until he said that it was okay. That was it. He hadn’t answered any calls, and Mischa hadn’t bothered to leave any messages. She continued to go about her usual life, and tried to take comfort in the fact that at least Will and Hannibal were together._

_When a month had passed with no further word from Hannibal or Will, Mischa had decided that she had to disobey her brother to see for herself that he was alright. She didn’t understand what exactly was going on, but she was sure that it couldn’t be anything good._

_Emmie hadn’t exactly advised against the idea, but she also hadn’t been very enthusiastic about it. Mischa wondered if Emmie and Hannibal would ever truly get along, but that wasn’t her biggest worry at the moment. She knew that Emmie would come with her if she asked, but Mischa felt that it would be too selfish to ask such a thing of her wife._

_So she headed to Hannibal’s while Emmie was elsewhere. Even though it was still daytime, Mischa could tell that none of the lights were on in the house even though Hannibal’s car was clearly in the driveway. Hannibal and Will were probably both at work, but still, she needed to see for herself. Mischa let herself in with her copy of the key, and felt something twisting in her stomach. It was just a bad feeling, but instincts existed for a reason._

_She cautiously made her way through the house, and saw that everything was perfectly in place, though there did seem to be a thin sheen of dust everywhere, which Hannibal would have never allowed. A glance into the kitchen found spoiled food in the fridge, and nothing fresh anywhere._

_Mischa slowly climbed the stairs, and went to Hannibal’s room. She knocked loudly on the door first just in case, but there was no response and no noise came from inside. She took a deep breath, and then pushed the door open. The curtains were drawn, so it was pretty dark, but Mischa could see what seemed to be her brother’s outline resting on the bed. He was a light sleeper, though, so there was no reason that he shouldn’t have heard her knocking. With a trembling hand, Mischa reached out to fumble with the light switch._

_As soon as light filled the room, she let out a loud gasp, and reached up to press her hand against her mouth to stop herself from screaming. It was indeed Hannibal lying there, an almost peaceful look on his face. But more importantly, there was a giant hole in his chest, and his entire bed was covered in the rusty brown of dried blood._   
,,,

Hannibal could feel the intensity of Bev’s gaze, but he didn’t bother to acknowledge it. He’d given her a very brief and vague description of Will’s life on Earth, and had then turned to look at the administrative building. Will had clearly wanted Hannibal to remain out here, but he hated the helpless feeling that it left him with. Hannibal wanted to be by Will’s side, but he trusted that Will knew best, at least in this strange place.

Finally, Will emerged through the front doors, though he did not have the triumphant look of a man who’d gotten a promotion and the power to bring them home. He rushed over, and looked somewhat surprised to see Bev still standing there. “I thought you had to file your report?”

She narrowed her eyes. “I do.” Will continued to stare at her until she let out a loud huff and tossed her hands up. “Fine, I get it, whatever it is that you’re doing is top secret or whatever. I’m going to file my report, but don’t you dare go and make trouble, Will.” She turned to Hannibal. “Make sure you keep an eye on him.”

“Always,” Hannibal promised, in a graver tone than the request really needed. But his answer was more for Will’s sake than Bev’s. Once she had disappeared into the building, Hannibal finally took the chance to study Will. He was shaking slightly, and his eyes had a wild look in them. “What happened?”

Will sighed, and grabbed Hannibal’s arm to pull him a few steps away. Suddenly there was a house in front of them, and when Hannibal glanced back, the administrative building was nowhere in sight. This was truly a fascinating place, and under different circumstances, Hannibal would have been eager to explore. 

Even though the house looked like it would be knocked over by a slight breeze, Will led him inside, revealing a place that looked like it had been abandoned for quite a while. Will held his hands out in a mocking grand gesture. “Well, this is home sweet home.” Hannibal tried to hold back his look of utter disgust at the idea that Will actually lived here, but he must not have done a very good job, because Will let out a loud snort. “It didn’t always look like this, I promise. I just haven’t been around for a while, and the place fell to shit.”

Knowing that this was where Will spent his time when he wasn’t on Earth painted the whole place in a different light as far as Hannibal was concerned. He knew that whatever had caused Will to not get the promotion was probably an issue that needed to be dealt with sooner rather than later, but it was difficult for him to contain his curiosity. 

He moved slowly around the room that they were in, running his fingers along the spines of Will’s impressive book collection, and looking at the various odds and ends that lined the shelves. He carefully skirted around the mattress that was in the middle of the room, and tried to take in every detail. When he finally walked back over to Will, he offered an amused smile. “Have you perhaps ever seen the film _The Little Mermaid_?” 

Will rolled his eyes. “Come on, I’m not that bad. At least I haven’t started combing my hair with forks.” 

Considering Mischa’s age, she would have been too old to be very interested in such a movie when it had come out, which meant that Will must have taken the time to watch it on his own at some point. It was a surprisingly endearing detail to learn, and it also reminded Hannibal that there was still so much about Will that he didn’t know. “So are you going to tell me what happened back there, or am I to start taking guesses?”

Will sighed, and reached up to run a hand through his hair. “Do you remember back when I first returned to you, and you dragged me to your office with you everyday like an asshole? And at the beginning, you got jealous about a phone call with an old friend of mine?”

Hannibal didn’t bother to dispute that he’d acted like an asshole at the time (not because it was true, but because he did not want to get into an argument with Will at the moment). He just nodded once. “I do.” Will had seemed so happy after that one simple phone call, and it had made Hannibal feel rather annoyed that he hadn’t been the one to cause it. 

There was a pause as Will took in a deep breath, and then slowly let it out. “Well it was someone I was friends with at the school I worked out before I went back to you, and we weren’t super close but I guess he was technically my best friend because I wasn’t closer to anybody else, but it turns out that he’s actually an imaginary friend who took his own contract and is way older than my mind can really conceive of, and he was waiting in Jack’s office because he wants that promotion too, but neither of us know how to actually take it and he could definitely take me in a fight.” The words all tumbled out quickly, like Will was hoping that it would stop Hannibal from understanding, but Hannibal had heard it all with no trouble.

He frowned as he thought it over. “I can see how that might be a problem.”

“You think?” Will asked as he rolled his eyes. “Now we need to work out a plan here, because I can’t beat him in a fight, and I don’t know nearly enough about him to even attempt doing to him what I did to Jack. We have a little bit of time because he doesn’t know how to get promoted, but we still need to move quickly. So, what’s the plan?”

Hannibal arched one eyebrow. “You think that I could come up with one so quickly?”

Will laughed. “I’m sure you came up with a couple before I even finished talking.”

It was nice that Will knew him so well, and it sent a feeling of warmth through Hannibal. “Well, I might have an idea or two.”  
,,,

_It had felt like a betrayal when the day of Hannibal’s funeral was bright and sunny. In the movies it was always raining and gray during funerals, and it had always made sense, because that’s how these events made people feel. But the weather didn’t care about what Mischa was suffering through, and it was a gorgeous day._

_Emmie had stayed by Mischa’s side the entire time, which was good because she was able to prompt Mischa to go up to the front of the room when it was her turn to speak, since Mischa hadn’t really been paying attention. It was too difficult to when she just wanted to close her eyes and go to sleep for a while._

_When the ceremony was over, everyone came by to tell Mischa that they were sorry for her loss, and that Hannibal had been such a great man, and that they would miss him at the opera, and where is that friend of his? Mischa shook hands in a daze, a small smile plastered across her face as she swallowed back tears._

_Eventually it was over, though, and Emmie had brought her home. Mischa spent the night crying in her wife’s arms, and it was surprisingly cathartic. In the morning, Mischa didn’t feel any better, but at least she didn’t feel quite so heavy anymore. She went about her day, and when she made a mess in the kitchen, she was actually able to smile at the thought of how much it would annoy Hannibal to see that._

_A week later, Mischa returned to work, and a couple weeks after that, everyone started treating her normally again, and not like she was made of glass. Thinking about her brother stopped having quite the same sharp sting, and started to instead have the fond nostalgia that came when she thought about her Uncle Robert, or when she really pushed herself to try and remember her parents._

_And it definitely helped that she was not alone. Mischa was the last Lecter still standing, but she had Emmie by her side, and lots of friends to help her through her grief. It wasn’t easy, but then again, losing someone never was. She even went to therapy when Emmie suggested it, and it was surprisingly helpful, especially when it came to remembering Hannibal the way he’d looked when he was alive, and not the way he’d looked when she’d found him._

_One thing that everyone questioned her about, though, was Hannibal’s house and belongings. Mischa refused to sell any of Hannibal’s things. Many different people chipped in with their two cents to say that it wasn’t healthy, but what none of them understood was that Mischa wasn’t saving it all for herself. She was saving it for her best friend, because she still hoped that Will would come back someday._  
,,,

It was probably mean to think such a thing, but Will was actually kind of glad that Jack was dead, because it meant that he wasn’t around to try and lecture Will for his behavior. The behavior in question being that Will had just thrown a molotov cocktail in through one of the ground floor windows of the admin building. Not the most elegant of distractions, but it did what it needed to, so Will saw no reason that Hannibal could complain about it (though of course he would anyways, because he was Hannibal). 

Even though it was frustrating that they couldn’t just kill Rob and be done with it, Will had to admit that one of the nice things about dealing with people who couldn’t die was that he didn’t have to worry about collateral damage. Maybe a few documents would get burned up, but there was nothing that couldn’t be replaced, and nobody would get hurt. 

Knowing that didn’t make Will wince any less at the sound of the screams that came from inside as everyone panicked. He hoped that he hadn’t actually hit anyone, because even if they healed instantly it would still hurt, but there was nothing he could do about it now.

He waited with his back pressed up against the wall, and watched as everyone rushed out of the building. It would take some time to get things back under control, and everyone knew that, so they all ended up heading home until later. 

Of course, Will wasn’t foolish enough to think that Rob had fled the building with the rest, but he’d at least accomplished what he’d needed to, and it was a start towards getting that promotion. Will paused just inside the entranceway to the building. When he thought about all of this from a human perspective, it did become quite strange. He laughed to himself as he imagined setting the FBI academy on fire and expecting a promotion at the end of the day. 

It probably wasn’t the best idea to be making jokes and getting amused at a time like this, but then again, if things went badly, there might not be a lot of time in the future to do so. Will was sure that he wasn’t going to die, because there wasn’t even the smallest part of him that wanted to, but there were plenty of ways that Rob could deal with him that wouldn’t involve death. 

Will quickly made his way through the building. He didn’t bother to be stealthy, since his way of clearing the place out hadn’t been even remotely close to subtle, and there was no way that Rob didn’t know he was coming. Will shoved open the door to Jack’s office when he reached it, and saw that it was empty. Rob was apparently smart enough to not just wait around when Will was so clearly itching for a confrontation. 

Will slammed the office door shut and locked it behind him, though he knew that it wouldn’t do anything to keep out someone who was truly determined to get in. Hopefully Hannibal would be able to keep Rob distracted for long enough that it wouldn’t matter, though. 

Will knew, of course, that Hannibal was quite capable of taking care of himself, but that didn’t stop him from worrying. Being able to hold his own against fragile humans wasn’t at all the same as going up against people that he literally had no chance of defeating. But he knew that Hannibal would fight with everything he had in him, even if he was still recovering from going up against Francis. 

There was no time to think, just time to act, and Will quickly began scouring the office. He didn’t know exactly what he was looking for, or even why he was so sure that he would find it in Jack’s office, but he didn’t have any other ideas about where to look for a promotion, so he desperately hoped that he was on the right track here.

He basically tore apart the entire room, but there was still no sign of anything that would turn Will into an administrator, and he let out a loud groan of frustration before kicking the side of the heavy desk that took up most of the room. If Will couldn’t get that promotion, then Hannibal would be stuck here forever, and there would be nothing Will could do to save him from Rob forever, especially if Rob had already managed to make himself an admin. 

Will slowly shuffled towards the door, and really hoped that he’d glance back and notice something in the disaster left behind him, but nothing had mysteriously appeared in the few seconds since he’d turned his back. With a silent apology to Jack for making such a mess of his space, Will reluctantly admitted to himself that he wasn’t going to find anything there, and he left. 

Where else could he even look? And how long would Hannibal be able to distract Rob before his human body gave out? Will wished that everything didn’t have to be so damn complicated. What was all of this even for? Just because Will had wanted to live a different life than the one he’d been created for? It didn’t seem fair at all. Then again, life was hardly ever fair. The amount of children who needed imaginary friends seemed proof enough of that fact. 

He ran down the hall and burst his way into all of the admin offices that he came across, but he couldn’t find anything in any of them that indicated a way to be promoted. At this point, Will figured that they were best off just making a run for it. 

Maybe Hannibal wouldn’t last forever, and it wouldn’t be the greatest life, but Will was confident that he knew his way around this place better than Rob, if only because it had to have changed so much in all the time that Rob had been on Earth. He could keep dragging Hannibal around from one hiding place to the next, and he’d be able to keep the human alive for at least a little bit longer. And they’d be together, which seemed like a very important thing to remember. 

So Will ran around the building until he heard noise, and then went in that direction. He ended up in the cafeteria, where he saw Rob and Hannibal in the middle of fighting. The sound of the doors slamming into the walls was enough to distract both men, and they glanced over. 

Normally, nothing could distract Hannibal when he was in the middle of a fight, but he also didn’t normally get into fist fights. He tended to take his victims down quickly and efficiently, so even though he was strong, he was no expert in hand to hand combat. He was also clearly tired and injured, which slowed his reactions as well.

Which left Will watching in horror as everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Hannibal turned back to his opponent, but Rob had taken the distraction as an opportunity to arm himself, and before Hannibal was able to focus back on him entirely, Rob jammed a knife right into Hannibal’s heart.

Will was sure that he must have let out a strangled shout, but he suddenly couldn’t hear anything except the sound of rushing blood in his ears, and he watched as Hannibal staggered back. Hannibal reached up to grab at the handle of the knife, to try to hold it in place. But stopping the bleeding wasn’t nearly enough, not when Hannibal was only human. He crumpled to the floor just moments later, though Will could still see his chest struggle to rise and fall, so he wasn’t dead yet, just unconscious. 

Will ran forwards, body moving on autopilot. There was no way he’d gone through all of this just for Hannibal to die now. He understood that life wasn’t fair, and that it didn’t have to be, but that didn’t stop him from stubbornly wanting to insist that the universe give him something good, just this once.

He dropped to his knees next to Hannibal, completely ignoring Rob. He reached out to grab Hannibal’s hand, which felt as warm as normal. Will was no expert on medicine, though, and he didn’t know what he could do. He knew how to stitch up small injuries, and how to slap a bandage on a cut, but that was the extent of his practical knowledge. Beyond that, he’d retained a small amount from Hannibal’s textbooks back during the college years, but he didn’t remember anything that would be useful here. 

Will swore under his breath, and then slowly looked up at Rob, who was still just standing there, and he had the audacity to look apologetic. “Honestly, I hadn’t intended on killing your pet, but he just wouldn’t give up. But honestly, Will, what were you thinking, bringing a human here?”

Will grit his teeth. “I’m going to make you wish you were dead, and then I’m going to kill you.”

Rob actually looked surprised by the threat. “Over him? Realistically, how much time would you have had together anyways? I’m living proof that taking control of your own contract doesn’t suddenly turn you into a human. You would just keep on living and not getting hurt forever, and you’ll forget about him after a couple hundred years on Earth. That’s what I-” he cut himself off abruptly, and then turned away.

Will frowned, and then looked back down at Hannibal. He could see the man’s breathing already starting to slow, and his lips had taken on a blue-ish tinge. He didn’t think that there was anything he could do to save Hannibal. Even if he got promoted and took the man back to Earth right this second, he didn’t think any amount of doctors or surgery would be able to fix this.

He wasn’t going to cry, though. At least not in front of Rob. He clenched his jaw, and looked back up at the other imaginary friend. “So you let yourself get attached to a human too? What happened?” If there was any weakness that he could use to break Rob down for even a second, that would be all the time Will needed to end the man’s life. 

Rob crossed his arms over his chest. “Oh, it was so long ago I hardly remember.”

“Liar.”

Rob sighed, and then sank down onto the nearest chair. “You have to understand that as old as I am, I never really knew- knew how our kind were made. Like everyone else, I thought we just popped into existence one day and that was that. I suppose I’m a bit of a fool for believing it.” Will furrowed his eyebrows as he stared at Rob and tried to understand where he was going with this. Will continued to hold Hannibal’s hand as he listened, even as the hand grew colder. “When I first saw you after you were hired, I was drawn to you because you look just like someone I knew a very long time ago. I thought perhaps you were somehow a long distant relative. It wasn’t until I realized you were an imaginary friend that I realized the truth. Oh, I’m too old for such shocking revelations, Will.”

“What are you talking about?”

Rob sighed. “I had a human that I was very fond of. He wasn’t the reason I took my own contract, I did that much earlier, once I grew tired of living to do nothing but be around brats. But when I met him, I thought that I’d finally figured out what the point of everything was. I knew I would outlive him, but I tried not to think about it. I assumed that we would at least have a while to be together, and I didn’t think otherwise until he died in my arms. Oh, I could have returned here to work or retire, but he had urged me to live on, knowing from nearly the start that I would outlast him, so I did as he had asked. And then you…”

There was a sinking feeling in Will’s stomach, and he hated it. “What are you saying?” He thought that he might already understand, but he needed to hear the exact words to really know.

Rob’s shoulders slumped down. “My human had no family that I knew of, but you look so identical to him, at least as far as I can remember. Admittedly, it was so long ago, and I don’t have a single painting of him. You look exactly like him, Will, and Francis told me that you were made to replace him. It was a time before humans bothered much with tracking the days, but from what Francis told me, you were made very soon after my human died. And you look exactly like him. I always thought we were made out of nothing, but now I can’t help but think that we- that we were all once human.”  
,,,

_Mischa was startled when everyone jumped out from their hiding places and shouted “Surprise!” but once her heart settled down, she laughed. She wasn’t sure that she’d ever had a surprise party before, but it was fun._

_At the end of the day, once all the guests had gone home and most of the clean up had been taken care of, Emmie had dragged Mischa up the stairs to their room. “Come on, I have a present for you, too.”_

_Mischa leered at her wife, expecting something related to the bedroom, but paused when she was handed a small box instead. Mischa lifted the velvety lid, and looked at the locket nestled inside. She pulled it out, and opened it, and saw that inside was a picture of Mischa and Hannibal laughing together on one side, and a small version of Emmie and Mischa’s wedding photo on the other. Mischa closed it, and immediately pulled her wife into a hug. “Oh this is beautiful, thank you.”_

_Emmie let out a sigh of relief as she returned the hug. “I’m so glad that you like it. I was worried you might think it’s too soon to wear his picture around, but-”_

_“I love it,” Mischa assured her. “It’s perfect.” Later that night, after Emmie was fast asleep, Mischa slipped out of the bedroom and down to the kitchen. She leaned up against the counter, and popped the locket open to study the pictures inside of it again. It really was a truly lovely and thoughtful gift, and Mischa was grateful to have someone who cared about her so much in her life. But she still couldn’t help missing her brother, and this whole day had served as a reminder that it was her first birthday where she hadn’t been able to talk to him at all. Even when they’d lived on different continents, Hannibal had always been sure to call and wish her a happy birthday. It was difficult to accept that he was gone, and it was even worse for the fact that they had never figured out who killed him. Whoever it was must have been very strong indeed, because Mischa couldn’t imagine her brother going down against just anyone._   
,,,

Will stared at Rob with wide eyes. “How-? Why-? But I- I don’t remember being human. Do you?”

Rob shook his head. “No. Does it matter?”

Will looked down at Hannibal’s body, which was now completely still, and he clenched his jaw. “No, it doesn’t.” He stood, scooping Hannibal up into his arms. “I’ll be back to deal with you later,” he promised Rob, and even if it only lasted for a fraction of a moment, he saw the way that Rob flinched back from him.

Then Will ran. He didn’t care if Hannibal wouldn’t remember any of his life as a human, he just cared that he had a chance to get him back. Maybe he wouldn’t be the exact same person, since people were formed by their experiences and memories, but he would still be Hannibal, and he would be alive (or whatever imaginary friends were). 

He quickly went to the house of one of the other administrators. Despite everything else that had happened between them, Jack had always been the admin that seemed fondest of Will, and he was the one who had always given Will his new assignments. But that didn’t mean that he couldn’t turn to one of the others for help now. 

When Will reached the opulent home he had been looking for, he shifted Hannibal in his arms so that he could reach out and knock insistently on the door. It swung open slowly after a moment, revealing a frigid looking woman who Will had usually avoided. “Bedelia, I need your help.”

Her eyes flicked down to the body he was carrying, and then back to his face. “You murdered Jack,” she said in a surprisingly soft and calm voice. “Why would I help you with anything?”

“You can’t kill me,” he reminded her. “And I swear that I will be a nuisance to everyone here for the rest of eternity if I don’t- If you help me, then we’ll go back to Earth and just live our lives, and we’ll never both anyone here again. I know that we all used to be humans, which means that you can save him. Please.” His voice broke on that last word, but he didn’t care. 

It felt like an eternity before Bedelia spoke again, and Will was very aware of the fact that he was just standing on her front porch as she casually blocked the way into her home. “You really love him, don’t you?” 

That sounded like a rhetorical question, but when the silence stretched out between them, Will realized that she actually wanted an answer. “Yes. I- I promised that I’d never leave him, and even though he never promised it back, I always knew he meant the same. I do love him.” It was strange to finally say those words out loud. The closest he’d come was when he’d talked to Jack in the end, but even then he hadn’t actually said them like that. He thought that it would be some momentous occasion, but it wasn’t. It just felt… right.

Bedelia continued to look at Will for a long time, and he felt like she was trying to see right into his soul. He didn’t know what she was looking for, exactly. If she could really read minds, she’d see that Hannibal was a murderer, and proud, and surely she would never dare bring someone like him back to life. 

But to Will’s surprise, she nodded once, and then slowly moved aside so that Will could walk into her house. “If I do this, then you are to agree that neither of you will ever return to this place.”

Will nodded, and found that he would have agreed to just about anything if it would have made Bedelia say yes. “I swear it.” He set Hannibal down on the couch that Bedelia indicated, and then knelt down to hold the hand that felt like it was frozen. “You’ll be alright,” he whispered. “I’m not going to leave you.”   
,,,

_Mischa was cranky that no matter how much she shifted around in her bed, she couldn’t get into a comfortable position. That was the curse of being old, but knowing that didn’t make it any better. She missed the days of being young and nimble, and remembered fondly when she’d been a child that ran all over the large property her aunt and uncle had lived on. Sometimes it felt like all of that had happened just yesterday, while other times it seemed as though it had been lifetimes ago. She’d been such a different person back then, hadn’t she?_

_Unable to find a spot that was actually going to let her get a good night’s rest, Mischa threw back her blankets, careful not to disturb her sleeping wife, and headed to the kitchen. She was careful to be quiet so she wouldn’t wake Emmie, since they’d moved to a one story place a few years back (once stairs stopped being so easily managed), and the walls here were quite thin._

_Mischa set up the kettle to make hot water for tea, and then settled back as she waited for the water to boil. As she waited, she heard a knock at the door. Mischa frowned when she glanced at the clock. It was just past midnight, which meant that it was far too late for any respectable visitors._

_Still, she couldn’t deny that she was at least a little bit curious about who might have come to see them at this hour, so she went to the front door, and glanced through the peephole. When she saw a familiar face, she let out a loud gasp, and then immediately fumbled to unlock the door so that she could yank it open._

_There, standing right in front of her, was her childhood imaginary friend, Will. She immediately went to hug him, and he returned the embrace. They stood there like that for several long seconds, until Mischa noticed that there was someone else standing out there._

_As she watched, he moved into the light, and she raised her hand to her mouth when she saw a face that she’d thought she’d never see again. “I’m sure I must be dreaming,” she said lowly. “I always hoped I’d see you again, Will, but I must be hallucinating, because it seems to me that that’s Hannibal standing behind you.”_

_Will let out a soft laugh, and it was such an achingly familiar noise, even if she hadn’t heard it in decades. “You’re not dreaming, I promise. I wanted to come and see you sooner, but it was difficult at first. He’s like me now, but neither of us go around to the children. You were my last official client. But it took a bit of time for him to adjust to the change, and then we had to figure out how to make ourselves real. It took awhile to find the right kid who could make contracts for us so that we could snatch them up and leave. But we’re here now.”_

_Mischa stepped past Will, not caring that the ground was so cold beneath her bare feet. She walked up to her brother, and gave him a long look. He looked just the way she remembered him, like he hadn’t aged a day since the last time she’d seen him. “It’s really you?”_

_He smiled at her, and it was the same smile she’d loved growing up. “Yes, it’s really me. I hope I did not worry you by being away for too long.”_

_There were tears falling down Mischa’s cheeks, but she didn’t care. She threw her arms around him, and he immediately did the same. “I missed you so much, Hannibal. But I forgive you for taking so long.”_

_He laughed. “Thank you, that is very generous.”_

_When she finally pulled away, she realized that she was standing on the street in her night clothes, which was entirely inappropriate. She quickly stepped back inside, though she left the door open. “Would you like to come in for some tea?”_

_Both men seemed overjoyed to follow her into the house, and Mischa felt so happy she thought she might burst. As the three of them sat around and talked and laughed (and eventually became the four of them when a sleepy Emmie wandered out to join them), Mischa felt like she was still a young woman again. She thought that she would never get to have this again, but she was unbelievably happy to be wrong._  
,,,

When it had become clear that Rob would not be able to steal a promotion for himself, he had instead stolen an assignment file and used it to return to Earth. He picked a new place to live, since he didn’t want to be bothered by Francis or anyone else who might seek him out, and he settled into a new life. It was a familiar routine, considering how many times he’d had to start fresh. That was one of the few downsides to never looking any older. 

He moved around a couple of times after that as well, each time uprooting his entire life and starting all over again somewhere else. After nearly a century had passed since his last visit home, he was able to start feeling, once again, as though the Earth was his real home. 

Nothing in his life ever really changed, until the day he was bothered from his work by the sound of a polite knock at the front door. Rob hadn’t been expecting visitors, but he got up to see who it was. When he pulled the door open, he felt frozen in place when he saw them. Will and Hannibal both looked at him with nearly identical grins on their faces. “Oh, Rob, you didn’t think I’d forgotten about you, did you?” Will asked in an almost sweet voice. “I made a promise, and I intend to keep it.” Rob just stared at the pair with wide eyes, and then gulped. He was older than them both combined, but he was also more tired, and was by himself. There was no way that this was going to end well for him.

The man at his door must have seen the resignation on his face, because they both offered up shark-like grins. It was strange to see Will look so bloodthirsty, and yet it also somehow looked entirely natural, like this was the way he was meant to look all along. For the first time in longer than he could even remember, Rob felt scared, and he knew that this was surely going to be a very long night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there you have it! We have reached the end of yet another story that was only supposed to be a one-shot lol. Thank you so much to everyone who has been reading this and supporting me throughout!


End file.
